A teacher to us all

In thinking about the many dimensions of Susan Tifft’s legacy at Duke and beyond, I’m looking at the 25th anniversary edition of Duke Magazine (from just under a year ago). Susan, then with Time magazine, was one of the founding members of the magazine’s advisory board; that was back in 1983, before the magazine had even published its first issue. Over more than a quarter century on our board, Susan—always a strong presence—helped us keep our commitment to the standards of journalism and, at the same time, to the values of a great university.

For the anniversary issue, we had asked Susan—as one of 25 leading Duke thinkers—to speculate about life 25 years in the future. Even with the relentlessly bad news about the profession of news-gathering, there are hopeful developments, she wrote: “While the business of journalism is undergoing a painful transformation, journalism is at a thrilling juncture.” Leave it to Susan to offer an analysis far deeper, much more subtle, than the familiar gloom-and-doom scenario. In her essay she reflected on the potential for blogs, social media and data-mining technology to reinvigorate—or reinvent—the profession to which she was so dedicated.

Characteristically, Susan ended the essay by citing the insights of her students. Overall, she observed, those students expressed confidence that “reliable news would still be available, and the ethics and values of good journalism would endure.” It’s obvious where her students found that confidence: from the lessons Susan imparted, and from the life she lived.

No one stood more clearly and eloquently from the ethics and values of good journalism than Susan Tifft. And no one cared more avidly for her students and colleagues than Susan Tifft—a teacher to us all.

Robert J. Bliwise

Editor, Duke Magazine