The Missouri Miner: Editors-in-Chief: Richard H. Okenfuss

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

Est'd. 1915, Fred Grotts, Founder

Richard H. Okenfuss
EIC 1956-1958

This exchange is pieced together from several e-mail interviews occurring between May of 2005 and the present. 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?

RO: April 1956 to April 1958. Paul [Douglass] was slated to become EIC, but went on scholastic probation at mid-semester in the spring of 1956. Hence, he could not run for any office on campus, as per school rules. No one else would agree to run, so I agreed. As best as I recall, Joe Lesyna was the editor before me. Joe Masnica and Jim Walther, two of my editorial editors, were the next two EIC's.

RB: How did the election and recruitment processes for the Miner work during your employment on the paper, and how did Phi Kappa Theta fraternity manage to hold a monopoly on the EIC position so consistently for so long? Was there a special relationship between Phi Kappa Theta and the Missouri Miner?

RO: Phi Kappa Theta, or Theta Kappa Phi, as it was known at the time, was a very active supporter of both the Miner and the Rollamo [yearbook], as well as the Interfraternity Council, and the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity. We, along with Pi Kappa Alpha, Kappa Sig, Lambda Chi Alpha, and Sigma Nu essentially dominated these organizations. The editor of the Miner was consistently a Theta Kap, as you have noted, and the editor of the Rollamo was also a Theta Kap about once every three years. Elections were held mid-spring, on campus, in the evening. These were announced in the paper a week or so in advance. These were open, and anyone could attend.

RB: What other positions did you hold while working on the Missouri Miner staff?

I was a sports and news reporter in 1954-55.

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

RO: I found my two years as editor to be fun, hectic, and a challenge. [My challenges included] meeting a weekly deadline, getting the paper to press, [and] getting the paper into an attractive format to encourage readership.

RB: What were your greatest accomplishments as Editor-in-Chief of the Missouri Miner? What issues were most important to you?

RO: See [biggest challenges]. [Also,] we moved to a five-column tabloid format, designed a new masthead with Joe Miner on it, and increased the use of photos since our printer simultaneously moved to offset printing. We won some rewards [sic] as a result.

RB: Do you remember anything more about these awards, like who awarded them or how they were presented to the Miner?

RO: We won some type of award for what we did from McKendree College for best redesign. That was pretty easy as the old design was really bad, with most headlines all the same size and style. As I recall, the award was from a midwest university press organization that normally met at McKendree College or at another one near by, along the Illinois side of the river, north of St. Louis and Alton. The had an annual weekend convention that we attended with our advisor. We were the only college with only engineers and scientists attending.

Every two years, we also went to a national collegiate press convention. I went to one in Cleveland, where we took the overnight train, and one in New York, my first jet plane flight. We did not win any rewards [sic] there, but picked up good tips at each of these.

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

RO: Interviewing Louis Armstrong after a concert and getting his autograph for my little sister. A campaign to improve parking by demonstrating problems with illegal parking (by faculty) and occupying more than one parking spot. Improved sports coverage with photos.

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

RO: The Miner was the main news source on campus. There was some tension between the fraternities and the Independents, and we tried to give coverage to both.

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?

RO: I learned to create articles in my mind, and put them on paper, or in messages, without needing much editing. Even with my MS thesis, I was able to do much of this. This has been a major benefit in my career.

RB: What was your staff like at the Miner?

RO: We had a good staff, that worked well together. People went out of their way to insure we met our deadlines for publication.

RB: What was the weekly routine of the Missouri Miner staff? I'm especially interested in where the newspaper's office was located, when your staff meetings were, and what kind of equipment you used to make the paper each week.

RO: We had no office as such. Most decisions were made by phone, or in small meetings at one of the fraternity houses. We also had a group of 5-8 who were at the printers every Wednesday evening as we struggled to put the paper together. Everything was typed into a linotype and cast in lead, each page line as a separate piece. We handset larger headlines. Headlines were written by selecting individual letters from a type box and then placed in position on the press table with the linotype story itself. Often, we created last-minute articles to fill a space around the ads.

A number of reporters were assigned specific areas to cover. Several covered sports, several covered each department and each organization on campus. Then there were some lead reporters who covered specific stories each week. We had an assistant editor, I added a second, a business manager, an advertising manager, and a circulation manager. Each of those had assistants working with them. I also added a couple of photographers when we switched to offset printing and photos were not a time-consuming, expensive task. Given that most students were carrying 18-22 credits every semester with a number of labs as well, we needed a large staff to relieve people with tests coming up. We never missed an issue.

RB: Was the paper published at the Rolla Daily News? If so, what was your relationship with Ed Sowers? If it was not published at the Rolla Daily News, then where was it published?

RO: Apparently the Rolla Daily News used to print the Miner. However, a year or so before I became involved, i.e. in 1953 or 54, the Daily News asked that we find a new publisher. So the May Printing Co. became the printer in a small plant up near the Rollamo Theater. The paper was a large, full size, seven column, four page paper, printed weekly. We had trouble every week finding articles to full the front page, and photos were expensive. At the time I became editor, they were switching to an offset press in their plant in St. James. The first thing we did [as a result] was change the paper to a smaller page, tabloid style design where we had flexibility to print anywhere from six to ten pages. We had enough ads that we needed a minimum of six pages just to insert those. We had someone design a new masthead with a flowing "Missouri Miner" design with Joe Miner as part.

We would set these smaller pages the same way as before in the Rolla plant, an impression would be made and printed onto an offset metal film sheet, and these were taken to St. James for printing. A major advantage was that we could screen in photographs very easily and inexpensively, so we could now use many photos. A problem was that we needed now to lock the paper on a Tuesday night rather than Wednesday, so we could still have the papers ready for distribution on Fridays. There were nights where we stood looking over the linotype operator's shoulder, dictating a story to fill a hole in one or more pages. We also maintained several trays of small stories, many humorous, that we could use to fill in a column.

RB: Who was the newspaper's faculty advisor?

RO: The advisor was a professor in History in the Humanities Dept. I think his name was Karl Moyer, or something like that. The only Rollamo I have handy is 1957, and he is not pictured in it. I can picture him, a little stocky, full head of slightly greying hair, and a moustache. He pretty much let us do our own thing, occasionally critiquing an article.

Left: Professor Karl Moulder (1913-1973) in his 1931 high school photograph.

RB: How would you describe your management style?

RO: I tried to be a consensus builder, and seek collaboration. But at times, a pending deadline required a more autocratic role, or there would be no paper that week.

RB: Describe your relationship with the administration at UMR.

RO: Overall, quite good. I met with Dean Wilson almost on a weekly basis. We did have some disagreements over our parking improvement campaign, but resolved them.

RB: Describe your relationship with Student Council at UMR.

RO: Student Council was not a major force on campus in the 1950s. We worked with other groups, like the St. Pat's Board, athletics, and professional societies more.

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

RO: This was a great experience, and the two years allowed more planning that a single term would have allowed. However, the beginnings were rough, and my grades suffered at first because of all of the time required every week. I was carrying 21-22 hours each semester, with six Ch.E. labs every afternoon and Saturday mornings. A major benefit was that I learned to compose an article in my head, and write or type it down with little need to edit or correct it afterwards. That helped me write reports both in college and afterwards in my 35 years with Procter and Gamble. It gave me some management experience, and as I said previously, the writing skills I learned are still being applied as I write this answer.

The key thing for me is that being editor paid for half of my education. Writers were paid a small amount per inch of copy used. The editors received larger amounts. [The] Editor-in-Chief [was] paid $500.00 per year at the time, and my total expenses for a year at Rolla never exceeded $1000.00 until my final year of graduate school. I figured out at the time that I was earning about $0.25 per hour. I graduated with 168 hours of credits in four years, eight more than what was required for a B.S.