Remembering Karen Blumenthal: A selfless teacher
From John Lumpkin, retired Director of the Schieffer School of Journalism at Texas Christian University, previously Vice President of Associated Press: Karen had a profound effect on journalism students at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth while I served as Director of the Schieffer School of Journalism. It was another example of the reach of her exceptional life. She brought business journalism at TCU to a new level as visiting professor, hired through a grant we secured from the Donald W. Reynolds Center at Arizona State University to create an emphasis on business reporting. In doing so, she had a one-way commute in DFW Metroplex traffic of an hour or more for a one-hour classes in more than one subject. In addition, she and I co-taught a newly established journalism capstone course in 2014 in which competitively chosen students partnered with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in a major reporting project on civil asset forfeiture. The editor of the Star-Telegram warmly described the project here. Currently leading business journalism instruction at TCU is Dr. Melita Garza, who, like Karen, was a business reporter who acquired an MBA to accelerate their knowledge and understanding of the field they chose to cover. Dr. Garza wrote me after hearing of Karen's passing: