UW News

February 26, 2015

Donations in memory of journalism professor Fendall Yerxa, 1913-2014

UW News

Fendall Yerxa

Fendall Yerxa

Fendall Yerxa, a former faculty member in the Department of Communication, died in October 2014 at the age of 101. He is remembered as a patient teacher and an insightful and highly professional old-school journalist.

He worked as Washington, D.C., bureau chief for The New York Times and managing editor of the International Herald Tribune. He anchored ABC News and even hosted his own television magazine-style program. He was an on-air news analyst for KOMO News in Seattle. And he was a U.S. Marine.

Yerxa also taught journalism at the UW from 1965 until his retirement in 1984. Three of his former students share their memories in an article now on the Department of Communication website.

“Professor Yerxa was a kind and gentle soul who took teaching to another level and made learning fun instead of punitive,” wrote former student Julie Burrell, who graduated in 1984. “He supplied an attractive and rigorous style of professionalism, fresh from The New York Times, to aspiring journalists,” wrote Beverly Peterson Stearns of the class of 1967. “He was tall, handsome and, as he contemplatively smoked his pipe, seemed wise to the ways of the real world of reporting.”

In an obituary for The Seattle Times, reporter Erik Lacitis related a story told by Quentin Yerxa, one of Yerxa’s sons, about a “code worked out for which train he’d be taking home” when his father anchored ABC News. The signoff “I’m Fendall Yerxa and that’s the news” meant he’d take the early train. Calling it the “late” news meant a later train, and “that’s the latest news,” meant an even later train out of New York.

Those wishing to remember Yerxa with a donation are asked to consider the UW Excellence in Journalism Fund, which supports student programs such as the Olympia Legislative Reporting Internship. Donations may be made online, or by contacting Victoria Sprang, the communication department’s alumni relations manager, at 206-724-3580 or vsprang@uw.edu.