The Missouri Miner: Editors-in-Chief: T. Dean Daniels

Research Project: 100 years of
The Missouri Miner 1915-2015

Est'd. 1915, Fred Grotts, Founder

T. Dean Daniels
EIC 1946

This exchange is pieced together from a letter to me and answers resulting from a questionnaire mailed in April of 2007.
Words in brackets have been added for continuity due to this piecing process. -RB

RB: From when to when were you Editor-in-Chief of the Missouri Miner? What other positions did you hold while working on the Missouri Miner staff?

DD: [I was Editor-in-Chief of the Miner during the] Spring Semester of 1946. [I also previously held the position of] Sports Editor.

RB: What were the biggest challenges you faced as Editor-in-Chief of the Missouri Miner?

DD: Selling enough papers to pay for the printing.

RB: What "big" stories are most memorable to you and why?

DD: Return of World War II service men to the campus. Problems of housing, assimilation into college life after fighting a war, married students.

RB: How significant a role do you feel you and the Missouri Miner played in campus life during your tenure as Editor-in-Chief?

DD: It was well used.

RB: How did your time as Editor-in-Chief of the Missouri Miner help prepare you for life after college? What lessons did you learn?

DD: I too enjoy writing (on my third book -- at 81 no less!) and my work w/ the paper had a lot to do with "sparking" that interest.

RB: What was your staff like at the Miner?

DD: Production Manager, Sports Writer, Reporter or 2.

RB: Who was the Missouri Miner's faculty advisor?

DD: Don't recall having one!

RB: Where was the newspaper's office? What equipment did you use to produce the paper every week? If you published at the Rolla Daily News (the local city paper), what was your relationship with Ed/Steve Sowers? If not, where did you publish the paper?

DD: Didn't have an office--used the Daily News.

RB: How would you describe your management style?

DD: A driver!

RB: Describe your relationship with the administration at UMR.

DD: Since there were only a small number on campus I knew all the administration, Dean, etc.

RB: Describe your relationship with Student Council at UMR.

DD: I can't recall much interaction. They did their thing, we did ours!

RB: Summarize your thoughts and feelings about your time as Editor-in-Chief of the Missouri Miner.

DD: It has been a long time since the Winter-Spring of 1946, so some of your questions can't be answered. I graduated in May of 46 and took a job w/ GE which has kept me either on the West Coast or East Coast for the rest of my life. I've been retired for 20 years. I have attached a few lines from a biography I wrote in the late 1990s at the end of this questionnaire.

"With so much of my time being spend in the Athletic Department, it was natural for me to be invited to become the Sports Editor for the Missouri Miner, the school newspaper. The paper was published weekly and was printed on the Daily News Era's Linotype machine. Students did the layouts, wrote the headlines, cast the Linotype lead slugs and prepared the press frames for printing. I loved printer's ink! With only a year's exposure, I could see how the newspaper business could get in one's blood.

In January, I was elected Editor-in-Chief of the Miner. Running the college newspaper was probably the single most important happening of my college experience. My other extracurricular activities included working in the Athletic Department, traveling with the basketball team, covering sports for the various papers, presiding over the Wesley Foundation...

In the meantime, I was busy going to classes, publishing a weekly newspaper and having fun. Tuesday was the dateline for the Missouri Miner. That meant that three or four of us would work most of Monday night, often writing last minute articles, to get the "rag" out on time. We also had to sell the papers. Before the war, the cost of the school paper was a part of the fee structure, but that practice wasn't reinstated until after I graduated. I pushed the Dean's office to change back to charging for the paper in the semester fees while I was the editor."