Passing of Former Director Friedlander
Passing of Former Director Friedlander
Edward Jay “Jay” Friedlander, age 74, a friend, father and journalism educator for
more than 50 years, died Friday, Jan. 31, 2020 in a Tampa, Florida area hospital.
Jay was born to Otto and Marguerite Friedlander in Maine in 1945, remaining their only child. He was educated in Delaware public schools; receiving his bachelor of science degree in journalism from the University of Wyoming in 1967. Friedlander completed a master of arts degree in mass communication from the University of Denver in 1970 and received a doctorate from the University of Northern Colorado three years later.
Always committed to print journalism, he was employed as a reporter for daily newspapers in Wyoming, Pennsylvania and Colorado before joining the United States Information Agency in 1968 as a reporter, where he was assigned White House and Capitol Hill beats. In 1969, he became a film publicist for Universal Pictures in New York, returning to Colorado a year later to edit a weekend entertainment magazine for a daily newspaper chain.
Friedlander was a media coordinator for the Boulder, Colorado public school district in 1972 and then, in 1973, he accepted his first university teaching role as an assistant professor of mass communication at Central Missouri State University.
In 1975, he married Roberta Kay Burford (“R.B.”), one of his former students (who remained a lifelong friend), and they both moved to Little Rock, Arkansas when he became an assistant professor of journalism, later full professor and department chair at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
His last university position was as the director of the School of Mass Communications at the University of South Florida from June 1995 through August 2010. He retained formal and informal roles with the school after his retirement in 2010.
Jay’s written work has appeared in 40 newspapers and a dozen regional and national magazines. In addition, Friedlander edited three book-length annual reports for the Federal Communications Commission and co-authored numerous college-level journalism textbooks; including works on reporting, feature writing and modern mass media. Those textbooks have been used by more than 250 colleges and universities in the United States, including two dozen large state universities and prestigious private universities, such as Harvard. His books have been adopted as texts by dozens of universities in Asia, Australia, Europe and South America.
Friedlander was passionate about preserving the First Amendment, academic freedom, writing and photojournalism. He maintained strong and well-researched opinions about everything, including the transition from printed newspapers to digital media.
He also cared deeply about current political events, and was a lifelong Democrat and advocate against injustice. Accordingly, he considered one of his great contributions the vast work he did, including a public TV documentary, on the travesty of Japanese American relocation in WWII; receiving honors for those efforts.
He was a scholar, intellectual and combined with his wit and acerbic humor - all to the benefit of those who knew him, including hundreds of students throughout his years of teaching - he embodied all the elements of a great teacher, not only in the classroom, but in life.
Erika, beloved daughter of Jay and R.B., of Winter Park, Florida, survives him, cherishing and implementing all he taught her about the world, life and love.
The last years of Jay’s life have been especially active and precious to him.
Jay wished to be buried in West Virginia, close to his surviving partner, Cynthia, who was instrumental in making those last years so special.
Although he will be missed, he lives on in the lives of family, friends, colleagues and students too numerous to list whose thoughts and actions were shaped by him forever - a true legacy.
Services to celebrate his life will be held at Blount & Curry Funeral Home - Carrollwood Friday,
Feb. 7, 2020 at 3 p.m.
3207 W. Bearss Avenue
Tampa, FL 33618
Phone: 813-968-2231
After the brief service, there will be a reception on-site where all attendees are
invited to raise a glass and to share their memories of Jay.
Contributions, in lieu of flowers, may be made to the Poynter Institute at www.poynter.org/support or any other organization which promotes excellence in journalism and journalism education.