C&IS announces 2012 Communication Hall of Fame Inductees
Robert E. "Bobby" Luckie
Robert E. “Bobby” Luckie recently retired from Luckie & Co.,
the advertising agency founded
by his father, Robert Luckie Jr., in
1953.
To honor Luckie the company
has instituted the Bobby Luckie
Character Award, a trophy with
a replica of half a sandwich on
top. Luckie, affectionately called
“B3,” is a famously generous man,
known for offering half his sandwich
to someone sitting with him
at lunch time.
Born in Birmingham in 1947, he attended Shades Valley High School, then graduated from UMS in Mobile in 1965. After receiving his B.A. in marketing from The University of Alabama in 1969, Luckie worked briefly with WAPI radio in Birmingham before joining what was then Luckie & Forney in 1971, where he had worked during his college summers. From 1969-1975, Luckie also served in the Alabama Air National Guard.
During his 43 years of work at
Luckie & Co., Luckie held pretty
much all the positions there, from
assistant account executive to
chairman. Alongside his brother
and CEO Tom, he helped the company grow to 132 employees with
offices in San Antonio and Atlanta
as well as Birmingham. On the
occasion of Bobby’s retirement,
Tom said, “Every young person
entering the business world could
learn much about leadership and
life from Bobby.”
Luckie learned early to be, as
he puts it, “buttoned up,” paying
attention to details and doing the
best possible job for his clients,
which included Blue Cross and
Blue Shield of Alabama, Regions
Bank, Little Debbie, American
Cast Iron Pipe Company and Bell-
South/AT&T. In 2000 Luckie was awarded
the Silver Medal by the Birmingham
Chapter of the American
Advertising Federation.
A golfer since childhood, Luckie
still plays and also collects golf
memorabilia. He is known for his
comprehensive knowledge of the
UA football program. Even with
his passion for Alabama football
and golf, Luckie has found a lot
of time to contribute to his community.
He has been active in the
Parkinson Association of Alabama,
Friends of Vulcan Park, the Kiwanis
Club and Alabama Goodwill
Industries, to name a few.
At his
Alma Mater, Luckie serves on the
Board of Visitors of the College of
Communication and Information
Sciences and also serves on the
Board of Visitors of the School of
Nursing at UAB.
Jim Brown of Blue Cross and
Blue Shield of Alabama calls
Luckie “the ultimate gentleman”
and says that “to know him is to
like him.”
Luckie married Jill Harris in
1970 and the couple has three
daughters, Mary Katherine, Casey
and Laura, and seven grandchildren.
Robert E. Luckie III has exemplified dedication and integrity
in his career in advertising and is
a most worthy inductee into the
College of Communication and Information
Sciences Hall of Fame.
Sue O. Medina
Each year, The Alabama Association
of College and Research
Libraries presents its prestigious
award, “The Sue O. Medina Significant
Contribution Award,” honoring
the year’s winner and reminding
others of the enormous lifetime
contribution of Dr. Sue Medina to
librarianship in Alabama.
Medina, born in Knoxville,
Tennessee, and reared in Tallahassee,
Florida, received her B.A.
in history (1966), her Master of
Science (1971), Advanced Master
of Science (1977) and Ph.D. in
Library Science (1983), all from
Florida State University.
Medina has had a long and
varied career ranging from base
librarian in Okinawa, Japan, in
1969, to reference librarian at
UGA, Athens, 1971-72, Mobile
Public Library, 1972-74 and the
Alabama-Tombigbee Library System,
1975-76.
In 1977 Medina became a consultant
for Planning and Research
with the Alabama Public Library
Service in Montgomery, and then
Director, Network of Alabama
Academic Libraries, from 1985
until 2009.
Throughout her career Medina
has been extraordinarily active:
writing and managing grants from
such organizations as the Institute
for Museum and Library Services,
the U.S. Department of Education
and the NEH U.S. Newspaper
Project, and consulting in Alabama,
Florida, Kentucky – wherever
her expertise was needed. She
has worked for the preservation of
Alabama newspapers, the creating
of inventories for art works in Alabama
libraries and the promotion
of reading Alabama literature with
such programs as READ Alabama,
an NEH-funded initiative, the Alabama
Book Festival and the online
literary map “This Goodly Land:
Alabama’s Literary Landscape.”
Medina is the author of numerous
articles aimed at the
improvement of library services
and, especially in the last 20 years,
bringing libraries into the digital
age and maximizing cooperation
among academic and public libraries
and making digital resources
available to individual students and
independent researchers, as well as
teachers in search of instructional
materials.
Largely as a result of her
efforts, we now have Alabama
Mosaic, a digital “repository of
materials on Alabama’s history,
culture, places and people” available
worldwide, and the Alabama
Virtual Library which makes
resources, especially databases,
available to schools and individuals
throughout the state.
Medina and her husband, Albert,
whom she married in 1978,
are now retired. Sue – not surprisingly,
for a librarian – reads a lot,
but also makes jewelry, teaches
working with gemstone beads,
quilts, does tai chi and has an
interest in spelunking, describing
her adopted home of Alabama as
having “a wealth of beauty above
ground” but also being “phenomenally
beautiful underground.”
Sue O’Neal Medina’s expertise
in the field of library science and
her contribution to the profession
in working to make information
and knowledge available to all
have made her a commendable inductee
into the College of Communication
and Information Sciences
Hall of Fame, class of 2012.
Joe Rumore
Joe Rumore was probably the biggest radio personality Alabama has ever known, and it seems likely there will never be another like him.
Born and reared in Birmingham,
at the family’s Southside
home, and on their Huffman farm,
Rumore seems to have been set
on a career in radio from the very
start. At age seven he nailed a tea
strainer, his fantasy microphone, to
a cigar box, and began “broadcasting”
on Station WJOE. He even
wrote himself a fan letter, indicating
strong and weak points of his
performance.
After graduating from Ramsay
High School in 1941, Rumore
went to work at WJLD in Bessemer,
then briefl y at WSFA in
Montgomery before returning in
1943 to Birmingham.
At WAPI Joe talked, announced,
played music, gave weather, even
talked with whatever live audience
might be in the studio. Joe hosted “Round-Up Time”
and “The Yawn Patrol,” an early
morning favorite.
Joe had the common touch. In
1947, he wished all listening mothers
a Happy Mother’s Day and received
2,347 thank you notes from
Alabama and Mississippi mothers.
In his time at WAPI, Rumore
received around 2,500 pieces of
fan mail per week and sometimes
answered 250 letters a day, usually
with a photograph.
Obviously doing fine at WAPI,
Joe nevertheless accepted an offer
from the new, powerful 50,000-watt station WVOK, the Mighty
690, where he remained for 30
years. Rumore’s business arrangement
with WVOK was truly unusual.
Joe bought air time from the
station, time he then controlled. He
spoke ad-lib, said and played what
he pleased, Country or Crooners,
and chose his own sponsors – but
no tobacco or alcohol accounts, as
mothers and children were listening.
A hard-working man, Rumore
for a while had three shows daily:
9-10, for housewives; 12-12:30
for farmers at lunch; and another
for teens from 3-4:15, all live, plus
an inspirational music show on
Sundays.
Rumore’s listeners, many of
them rural, were legion and faithful.
One Christmas Joe received
42,000 cards!
Because he had control of his
air time, Rumore could choose not
only what he put on the air, but
also his own studio arrangements.
In 1964 Joe had a studio built in
the basement of his home, complete
with teletype machine. Dropby
fans were welcome there, too.
Rumore broadcast on WVOK until 1982, completing a career of more than 40 years on the air in Alabama. He also ran the beloved store Rumore’s Record Rack, first on Second Avenue North and then in Homewood, from 1954 to 1979.
Rumore has been honored by
induction into the Country Music
DJ Hall of Fame in Nashville in
1999 and by the Contemporary
Achievement Media Award from
the Alabama Music Hall of Fame
in 2003.
Joe and Angie were married
on April 6, 1948, and had four
children, Frank, Donna, Phillip and
Joe Jr.
For his groundbreaking work in
radio and a lifetime of connecting
to and serving listeners in the state
of Alabama and beyond, Joseph
John “Joe” Rumore fully deserves
to be inducted into the College of
Communication and Information
Sciences Hall of Fame, class of
2012.
Randolph C. "Dolph" Tillotson
Dolph Tillotson, born and raised
in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, got his long
journalism career off to a remarkable
start at Northington Elementary
and Eastwood Junior High School,
founding papers at both schools.
During his freshman year at UA Tillotson was political editor at The Crimson White, but in June of 1969, at the age of 19, Tillotson went to work full-time at The Tuscaloosa News, attending UA classes when not covering the campus unrest over Kent State, the political revolution in Greene County and the myriad other events of those turbulent years.
With the mentorship and trust of
James Boone, Tillotson became city
editor of the News in 1972, general
manager of the Natchez Democrat
in 1973 and, after a fi ve-year stint
as the publisher of the Oskaloosa
(Iowa) Herald from 1975-80, Tillotson
was appointed president of
Boone Newspapers.
Tillotson was 30.
From 1981-87, he also served
as publisher of the Natchez Democrat,
and in 1984 the Democrat
was named one of the 12 best small
newspapers in America by the
magazine of the American Newspaper
Publishers Association.
From 1987-2011 Tillotson was
president and publisher of the
Galveston County Daily News and
vice president of Southern Newspapers
Inc.
Retired from the News,
Tillotson is now executive vice
president of Southern Newspapers
of Houston.
Under his leadership the News
was five times named best newspaper
of its size in the U.S. by the
National Newspaper Association
and received many top awards from
the Texas Press Association, Texas
Daily Newspaper Association and
Texas Associated Press Managing
Editors.
Tillotson has personally been
honored with numerous awards for
his columns and editorials in Alabama,
Mississippi and Texas, and
for his professional leadership. In
1988, he was named Alumnus of the
Year by the UA College of Communication
and Information Sciences.
Besides his successes with the
day-to-day running and improving
of newspapers, Tillotson has been
an activist for open government
and freedom of information and an
innovator in online technology; the
Daily News has a daily internet edition
with 3 million page views
monthly. In Texas Tillotson received
the Pat Taggart Award for industry
leadership, the Bronze Steer for his
work on open government issues
and the James Madison Award from
the Texas Freedom of Information
Council.
In his last column before retiring
from the Daily News, Tillotson
wrote what might amount to
a personal philosophy: “The key
ingredients in surviving and thriving
in Galveston are a sure sense of who
you are and a thick skin. If you think
you’re right, you have to stand up to
pressure, fight for what you believe
and never back down at the first
whisper of opposition.”
Always active in his community, Tillotson has served as volunteer for The United Way, Salvation Army, Chamber of Commerce and First Lutheran Church.
Married to Teri Jo Schaper
Tillotson for 22 years, Dolph has
two children from a previous marriage,
Jay and Katherine, and five
grandchildren. Dolph has run ten
marathons and is part of a climbing
group that climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro
in 2002.
Randolph C. “Dolph” Tillotson’s lifelong devotion to journalism in all areas of newspaper work and in his commitment to a free press make him most worthy to be inducted into the College of Communication and Information Sciences Hall of Fame, class of 2012.