Werner J. Severin, 83, a prominent journalism educator and photo-journalist, died of natural causes January 5th after collapsing at a restaurant where he was having dinner in Austin. Prior to his reputation as a no-nonsense, iconoclast at the University of Texas, he photographed many international historical figures, but eventually left his legacy of teaching in the United States, Asia and Europe.
Dr. Severin was a retired journalism professor who taught at the University of Texas for several decades. He is remembered by most for the textbook he co-authored, Communication Theories: Orgins, Methods and Uses in the Mass Media , which is still a standard in college classrooms. Werner served in the U.S. Army as a photographer in the post-war European theater. He was a Fulbright scholar, who taught and traveled throughout the world assisting foreign students in their journalistic pursuits.
In recognition of his work, this June in Eskisehir, Turkey, the annual international conference on Communication in the Millennium will be dedicated in honor of Severin, who taught for more than three decades at The University of Texas, and who lectured in Turkey early in this decade. He was the “intellectual catalyst” for this annual conference, according to Maxwell McCombs, a colleague of Severin at Texas, where two young key Turkish scholars Serra Gorpe and Erkan Yuksel, identified by Severin, were brought to Austin by McCombs in 2003 for their sabbaticals. They and McCombs subsequently founded the annual international conference which especially attracts Turkish and American communication scholars.
A half-century before that, as a photographer for the Army Signal Corps in Europe (1948-1952), Severin’s assignments included covering the Berlin Airlift in 1949, and being one of the first two photographers assigned to The Supreme Headquarters of Allied Powers in Europe (SHAPE) in 1950, where his photo of General Dwight Eisenhower’s return to the Normandy beaches in 1951, won The Photography International Contest prize — plus the expressed appreciation from the General.
In his career, Severin also photographed Charles Lindbergh, President Truman, Queen Elizabeth, and Indira Gandhi in various public and private settings, and he won the National Press Photographers prize for his United Press International coverage of the prison riots in Jefferson City, Missouri. His photos also appeared in Time, Newsweek and National Geographic and he was a writer and editor for the Associated Press and Look magazine in New York.
Werner’s travels throughout the world provided him with many opportunities to photograph wildlife.
After his bachelors and master’s degrees in journalism (1956, 1959) at the University of Missouri, he earned a Ph.D. in mass communication at the University of Wisconsin in 1967 where he and fellow scholar Bruce Westley produced often cited significant research on newspaper readership and credibility. Severin also taught at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri (1955-1957; at the University of Maryland (1957-1960); the University of Alaska (1964-1965) and the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point (1967-1969) before moving to the University of Texas, where he wrote his widely used text on Communication Theories: Origins, Methods Uses with co-author, the late James Tankard, his colleague at Texas.
That translated book attracted international attention, including Fudan University in Shanghai in The People’s Republic of China, to which Dr. Severin was appointed as the first Fulbright Scholar in journalism (1984-85). He lectured throughout the country on “The ‘Westernization’ of Chinese Mass Media.” At The People’s University in Beijing (the leadership training center for the Chinese Communist Party) after a three-hour Q and A session on the value of press freedom with faculty and students, Severin recalled that he was told he was the first American to do so—and he was invited back for three additional lectures.
In Asia, he lectured on new media technologies to the Japanese Journalists Association’s annual convention in Tokyo in June 1985, and he taught for six weeks as one of 15 U.S. journalists for the Press Institute of India and the U.S. Education Foundation, aided by a grant from the Research Institute at the University of Texas, where he was also a member of the Center for Asian Studies.
At the University of Texas, he taught a lengthy array of courses including both undergraduate skills and graduate seminars, served many years as chairman of the Graduate Studies Committee, supervised theses and dissertations by students later successful in the field, including winners of the most student prizes in the first eight years of the Mass Communications and Society Division of the National Association for Education in Journalism. In addition, he presented and published scores of his own research papers and articles in Journalism Quarterly and other scholarly as well as professional outlets.
He was a member and longtime campus adviser for Kappa Tau Alpha, the national journalism honorary society, and was national president of Kappa Alpha Mu, honor society for photo-journalism. He was also a consultant for the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Public Health Service.
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This website was created to honor Werner J Severin’s life and to let everyone throughout the world know of his passing away. Please feel free to submit any memories or comments you have of Dr. Severin for others to reflect upon in the blog section below.
In lieu of flowers or other memorial gifts, please consider making a donation of any amount to the Catherine Garots Severin Nursing Scholarship at Goshen College in Indiana, an endowment established by Werner in 2004 in honor of his mother Catherine who died in 2001. Click here https://gconline.goshen.edu/acct/prod/online_giving/bin/give_online.php to begin the online donation process. Then, click next on “one time credit card gift” and enter the amount of your gift in the box opposite the words “Catherine Garots Severin Nursing Scholarship.”
Thank you for remembering Werner.
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After one year of having this memorial webpage up in honor of Dr.Severin, the Comments Section to post has been removed due to SPAM, but you can email – werner <AT> severin <DOT> WS – if you have a comment to post. Thank you.
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Comments from those who knew Werner J. Severin:
On May 06, 2014, Zoe Zhi of Lakeline, MN: “I was planning a trip to visit Texas after many years, and I thought I would visit Dr. Severin in Austin. Unfortunately, I saw this webpage remembering him.
It might be little known to many people that Dr. Severin had helped many Chinese students and scholars to come to study in the United States. He touched and changed our lives. I would always be thankful for his help.
Although it was more than 25 years ago, it seemed yesterday when I arrived in Austin airport around 1:30am. I hated to bother the professor whom I was going to work with and yet to meet – but he was the only one I knew in Austin. Picking up enough courage I called “Professor Severin, I am here at the airport…”
Dr. Severin answered the phone with a warm and energetic voice: “…We’ve been waiting for you. Your flight was cancelled and we were worried… We are glad you are finally here!” In just a few minutes, Dr. Severin arrived with another Chinese lady scholar. She spoke to me in Chinese and Dr. Severin was wearing a big smile. I felt right at home.
After about a week working with him, Dr. Severin was looking up in a Dictionary in his office and asked me:” Would you like a name like Zoe?”
I was puzzled: “What does Zoe mean?”
“It originally came from Greek and it means Goddess of Life.”
“It surely sounds like a good name.”
“Would you use Zoe as your English name then? It is only one letter difference from your Chinese name, you know. ”
At that point I just realized that Dr. Severin had never called me by my name for the past week probably due to my difficult-to-pronounce Chinese name.
And Zoe has been my name ever since. Dr. Severin was the person who not only changed my life, but also my name. A person to remember always for sure!”
On April 02, 2014, Brian Anderson of Houston, Texas: “Dr. Severin was one of my favorite teachers at UT, because he was intelligent and tough. He held us all to high standards, which is what the newspaper business ought to be about. I wish I had taken the time to write him before now.”
On Feb 25, 2014, Prof. Dr. Erkan YÜKSEL of Eskisehir, TURKEY: “I met with Dr. Werner in 2002, the first day of my arrival in Austin, as a visiting professor at UT. It was my first morning in the US and he took me to a supermarket with my colleague and one of my best friends Serra Görpe that I will never forget in my life.
During my visit for 6 months in Austin, I spent most of my spare time with Dr. Werner. He was sometimes a good friend, sometimes a good father, and sometimes a good brother before than being a professor for me. We had celebrated his 73rd birthday at that time.
In the following years, I invited him to Turkey and hosted him two times. And before this recent Christmas, we were again planning his visit to Eskisehir in June 2014…
There is a lot to say about him. And there are lots of good memories, I can recall right now. Especially, his advice to me…
He was one of the members of the organization committee of our first CIM symposium that is a bridge between Turkish and American communication scholars. And he joined all the rest as a member of scientific committee, or as a moderator or a keynote speaker.
We were planning on his visit to Turkey for our annual Communication in the Millennium (CIM) International Symposium, . But unfortunately, he won’t be with us physically. His spirit will be with us and we will always remember him…
Dr. Maxwell McCombs, who is one of our co-organizers of the symposium, wrote me the sad news in January. And our response was the dedication of the CIM 2014 symposium in the name of Dr. Werner Severin.
One can visit our symposium web page: http://cimsymposium.blogspot.com.tr/
We are planning something special during our symposium for Dr. Werner on June 15-18, 2014 in Eskisehir, Turkey!
Thank you Dr. Werner for the meaning that you saved to my life…
On Feb 25, 2014, John Merwin of Chatham, NJ: “After not receiving any humorous email forwards from Werner for awhile, I became concerned and Googled his name, to discover Werner’s passing seven weeks ago. I completed an MA under Werner in 1969-70, and he proved to be one of the most influential persons in my life. I sat in his classes, did some work for him and occasionally dined in his home with his wife, a very good Swiss-born cook, and his son.
Werner taught me how important it was to strive not just for success in whatever you undertook, but to really lean into the task and strive for excellence as well. Learning that from him exerted a great influence over how I lived the next 45 years, both professionally and personally.
I am well aware that Werner’s iconoclastic personality at times stood between him and a few people, but for me he was a monumental influence at just the right moment. I’ll always appreciate the extraordinary example Werner set for me.”
On Feb 16, 2014, Margaret J. Wilson of Santa Fe, New Mexico: “I just learned of Werner’s death, so I write this with a heavy heart.
We were friends since I was a 17-year-old, green freshman at the University of Texas School of Journalism many moons ago. In much later years, we had a standing Sunday evening appointment for dinner followed by watching PBS’s Masterpiece Theater at my house. When I left Austin for Santa Fe several years ago, we kept in touch–mostly via email. He and his college buddy and long-time friend Larry Samson visited me here three or four years ago. He and Larry photographed Indian Market and other Santa Fe sites and events. They teased each other endlessly, keeping me laughing the whole time. Yes, Werner was a curmudgeon–and proud of it. But he was much more than that: highly intelligent, kind-hearted, knowledgeable about public affairs, an avid reader, expert photographer, outdoorsman and true friend.
I will miss him dearly and think of him often and fondly.”
On Feb 06, 2014, Christine Lehmann of Austin, Texas: “We loved Werner. He was a great neighbor. Always thinking of his neighbors. He made a special point to celebrate the birthdays of the two women on our street in their 90’s. (But would never tell us his birthday!)
He was incredibly humble. He always had great life stories, but it took us years to realize the expanse of his influence and work. I loved seeing him walk every day with his binoculars. I will miss that. He was so caring to us and our children. His visits were always full of amazing life stories. He was also truly proud of his son Paul.
Even in his passing, we learned more about the outreach of his endowment and charities he supported. Miss you Werner.”
On Feb 03, 2014, Alex Bird of Dortmund, Germany: “The thing I remember most from Werner is him coming over to the house to show me his photography portfolio and give me some quick lessons/tips. There were hundreds it seems of mostly black-and-white 8x10s. I remember him telling me specifically to take the opportunity of the unique environments(s) you are in to get pictures of important people.
On Jan 28, 2014, Stephen Hochstetler of Austin, Texas: “I am richer from my conversations with Werner. Miss him deeply. His compassion for others is a lofty goal I set for myself every day. Rest in peace!”
On Jan 28, 2014, Pat Hochstetler of Austin, Texas: “I feel blessed and humbled that I got to know Werner. I didn’t realize the magnitude of his accomplishments because he didn’t focus on himself. What a man!
My best memories are of Werner’s storytelling about adventures he had in his travels around the world. He had an amazing memory for details and a great storytelling style. With his vivid descriptions, you could picture yourself along side him on the journey.
Werner was a big supporter of the Children’s Development Center that uses Austin Mennonite to care for kids who otherwise might not have great daycare. I am fortunate to have a picture he took of Li River, China from 1985. He had donated some framed pictures and his original
typewriter to be used to raise funds for the daycare. I think of him when I look at that serene river. Good memories!
I pray for comfort and peace to the family at this time of Werner’s passing. Thanks for sharing him with us!”
On Jan 28, 2014, Janice Friesen of Austin, Texas: “Werner will be missed at Austin Mennonite Church. He has not been around the church for the last few years, but he is still in our hearts and memories. I know we did not appreciate or see him for all that he was and all that he had experienced in his life. I enjoyed hearing stories from him.
He always arrived at church early and helped out by passing out hymnals and picking up trash.
I have several of his photos that I purchased from the Child Development Center. He donated them to their fundraiser.”
On Jan 27, 2014, Peggy Bird of Austin, Texas: “Werner was a true,good friend for over 30 years.He had a sharp, incisive mind and knowledge of a vast array of subjects. Our lunchtime conversations would usually start with updates on my two sons and Werner’s son Paul, and then go on from there to any number of far-ranging topics. Werner didn’t “suffer fools gladly”, and I often teased him about being a curmudgeon (an appellation which he reluctantly agreed might be somewhat on the mark) I will miss my old, friend dearly.”
On Jan 26, 2014, Mahassen Ahmad of Austin, Texas: “Werner’s focus was on others, not himself. For the twenty or so years I had known him, he made me feel as if I had his illustrious career. What a friendly, helpful man! God bless him.”
On Jan 25, 2014, Vicky S . Kirkton of Goshen, Indiana: “Werner came to Goshen College to meet the recipients of the special scholarship he established for GC nursing students. We loved hearing his stories and he enjoyed hearing about each nursing student. What a wonderful legacy he left in memory of his mother. Rest in peace!”
On Jan 25, 2014, Bruce Stambaugh of Millersburg: “Werner was a great man. I always enjoyed talking to him, and he always greeted us warmly any time we visited Austin Mennonite. He also took some very nice pictures of our grandchildren at baby dedication. You have our deepest sympathies.”
On Jan 24, 2014, Jim Dispanet of Bulverde, Texas: “Werner was a good man and one hell of a photographer.”
On Jan 20, 2014, Miles & Terra Chick of Austin, Texas: “Werner was a absolutely delightful and amazing man, and it has been a joy to live near him. We will miss him so much.”
On Jan 19, 2014, Michael Nink of Austin, Texas: “(Werner) was a great man and we’ll miss him. He was always walking and taking pictures – he took some great ones of me and my oldest son which is one of my favorite pictures.”
On Jan 7, 2014, Yung Choo from Korea: “Prof. Severine was indeed a unique man with a lot of experience in various areas. Though I did not take any of his courses, he was kind to me as he was very close to Jim Tankard who was my dissertation supervisor.
The book they coauthored was translated in Korean long time ago for undergrads as a textbook. About four years ago, he sent me an email to check with the publisher here to send him a copy of the latest edition of their book in Korean. I did that for him and the Tankard family. That was my last correspondence with him.
On Jan 7, 2014, Stuart Showalter of Harrisonburg, VA: “I first met Werner in 1972 when he advised me into my first graduate classes in communication at the University of Texas at Austin. Later, he directed my doctoral dissertation, a study of the editorial attitudes of mass magazines toward conscientious objectors to the Vietnam War.
Werner contributed much to our understanding of mass media in modern society, which was the focus of a text, Communication Theories: Orgins, Methods and Uses in the Mass Media, which he co-authored with his colleague, James W. Tankard Jr. He was also an excellent photographer and donated beautiful images that he had created to his friends.
Werner was passionate about the truth and often defended writers and speakers who took a dissenter’s view of history. He was frequently critical of those in power who “pulled rank” or abused their power. He was an early opponent of the Vietnam War and cared about protecting the natural environmentalist.
Werner was loyal to his students and became their advocates as they advanced in their careers. He stayed in touch via e-mail. He often entertained with summaries of political humor taken from the television talk shows and other media sources.
Werner was unique in his view of the world and in his relationships with others. Ultimately, he contributed much more to the world than he took from it. RIP, Werner J. Severin!”
On Jan 7, 2014, Carrie Stambaugh Bert of Harrisonburg, VA: “Rest in peace, Werner Severin. What a delightful, intelligent, sometimes cranky, charming, generous and well traveled soul you were. Austin has lost a rare gem.”
On Jan 6, 2014, Lee Lever, Pastor of Austin Mennonite Church: “Werner Severin (83) died suddenly yesterday after collapsing at a restaurant where he was having dinner. Werner was part of the Austin Mennonite Church for several years but had not been attending for the past year. Werner was a retired professor who taught at UT for a number of years. He co-authored the textbook Communication Theories: Orgins, Methods and Uses in the Mass Media which is still a standard in college classrooms. Werner served in the U.S. Army as a photographer in the post-war European theater. He was a Fulbright scholar and taught and traveled in China. He assisted a number of foreign students.
Werner was a storyteller, passionate about the plight of the poor and a keen observer of politics and culture.. For a number of years he served the church by arriving early on Sunday morning unlocking, picking up trash around the entrance, setting out hymnals and turning on the lights. His faith in God was simple and profound – Love God and love neighbor.
Werner’s wishes were to be cremated and have his remains buried in a family plot in New Jersey. His son is in the process of making arrangements. More information about a memorial service and a more complete description of his life and legacy are in process.
Werner”s sudden death is a shock and we pray for comfort and peace in the midst of loss. Our sympathy and love to Werner’s family and friends.”
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Top 10 things that Werner J Severin NEVER said:
10. “Just vote the straight party ticket; all politicians are pretty much the same.”
9. “Human rights? Those protestors got what they had coming to ‘em!”
8. “There will be no homework, since UT is playing an away game this weekend.”
7. “A supercharger? Hell, I am putting Nitrous on my ride. ”
6. “Don’t worry your pretty little head now. Just turn in your thesis when you get time.”
5. “The reason it costs more is ’cause it’s better.”
4. “You can just sleep it off in class tomorrow. Go have fun. It’s pledge week!”
3. “Their is know knead to learn proper grammar any moor with spell Czech.”
2. “’Murica!”
1. “What do you mean you did not verify the facts or your sources? Don’t worry about it. Let’s just get this article to press and move on!”