SoJ Web Report | Oct. 25, 2011
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| Courtesy Scripps Howard Foundation |
The school has close ties to Roy W. Howard, who led Scripps Howard Newspapers from 1922-1953. The Scripps Howard Foundation and the Howard family have supported the school in many ways, including establishing the first endowed chair ever awarded in the school, held by professor David Weaver; funding the Roy W. Howard Scholarship; and funding the Scripps Howard Foundation Digital Imaging Lab at Ernie Pyle Hall.
“She was a strong supporter of the foundation,” said Sue Porter, vice president of programs for the Scripps Howard Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Scripps Howard company. “She was a very gracious lady who preferred to be involved quietly. We are so grateful for her support.”
The school also works closely with the foundation on the Roy W. Howard National Intercollegiate Reporting Competition, which includes an international trip led by School of Journalism dean Brad Hamm. Ernie Pyle Hall also is home to the Roy W. Howard archives, a collection of Howard’s correspondence often used by journalism researchers.
“She was a gracious and knowledgeable person who was an accomplished archaelologist, journalist and world traveler,” said Weaver. Perkins studied archaeology at Radcliffe and participated in early excavations at Chichen Itza.
“Along with her brother, Jack, and the Scripps Howard Foundation, she was instrumental in establishing the Roy W. Howard Archive and Professorship here in the mid-1980s," he continued. "She and her niece, Pamela, faithfully attended all of the early Roy W. Howard lectures here in Bloomington, and it was always a pleasure to spend time with them.”
Roy W. Howard's ties to IU are based in his Indiana boyhood years. Born in Ohio, he and his family moved Indianapolis when he was a boy. He delivered the Indianapolis newspaper and, by high school age, was selling his own stories to area publications. Even while leading United Press and, later, his own company, Roy W. Howard never lost his love of reporting. In addition to being an innovator in the industry, he traveled often to Asia and, in 1933, obtained an interview with Emperor Hirohito, the first ever granted an American newspaperman.
Like her father, Perkins also reported from Asia. Working for the Honolulu Advertiser in the late 1930s, she traveled to the Far East on Pan Am's maiden trans-Pacific clipper flight, where she interviewed Mme. Chang Kai-Shek and gave an eyewitness account of the Japanese bombing of China, according to her obituary in the New York Times.
Perkins lived in Italy many years with her husband, Cy, who preceded her in death. Survivors include three children; several grandchildren and great-grandchildren; and niece Pamela Howard and nephew Michael B. Howard.
More:
- Read the New York Times obituary.
- Learn about the School of Journalism’s ties to Roy W. Howard.
- Visit the Scripps Howard Foundation website to learn about programs it supports.
Questions? Comments? Email the Web editor.
