Rheta Grimsely Johnson informed and entertained students Tuesday, April 9, by recounting her life and career as chief speaker of the New Horizons lecture series.
More than 100 students, faculty and residents attended the event in Langdon Hall at 2 p.m. as part of the fifth installment of the lecture series, which seeks to bring distinguished speakers with insightful and exciting perspectives to the University.
While Langdon Hall may still seem novel to some students, Johnson remembered it as the former basement offices of The Auburn Plainsman.
“The phone was ringing constantly,” said Johnson. “We pretty much lived in there.”
As sun filled the auditorium with warmth and light, Johnson engaged and delighted the audience with stories from her days as editor of The Auburn Plainsman in 1974-5, her failed attempts at starting a weekly paper on St. Simon’s Island, Ga. and what she learned at her short stint at Monroeville’s The Monroe Journal.
The journalistic duo of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, famous for breaking the Watergate scandal and authoring "All The President's Men" in 1974, also proved to be a major inspiration for Johnson and those she grew up with in Auburn.
"All of us wanted to be the next Woodward and Bernstein," Johnson said.
Johnson compared the newsroom experiences of yesteryear with newer ones that she has worked at such as The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, saying that with increasingly technological advances reporters are getting less experience outside of the newsroom and declining face-to-face contact.
Johnson, who now writes a weekly essay for King Features Syndicate of New York, detailed these experiences to young and old writers while urging them to explore their world and take every opportunity and find some journalistic or human value in it.
Many of the most interesting people, Johnson said, none of us have ever heard of.
“They were old men, crooked politicians and county lawyers,” Johnson said.
Experiences such as documenting moonshine stills and taking a picture of a sweet potato that resembled Gerald Ford were just some of the snippets of wisdom Johnson had to offer during her 45 minute lecture.
Johnson ended her lecture by reiterating that in journalism and life there are no professional detours, no extraneous information or wasted days.
"All of it becomes fodder for writing," Johnson said.
At the end of her lecture Johnson was presented the New Horizons Lecture Award, commemorating her presentation, by Dr. George Flowers.
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
