When I worked at the University of Illinois, I had the great fortune to befriend Ron Yates, who was then the dean of the College of Communications (later the College of Media).

Ron is an old-school journalist. He was educated and began his career at a time when the profession was known for serious (sometimes life-threatening) investigative work and a passion for finding the truth.

He received his degree in journalism from the University of Kansas, where he was editor of the award-winning student newspaper. In his senior year, he was invited to Chicago to interview with the Chicago Tribune, along with only two other college students from across the U.S. At the interview, Ron says, all three were asked what they wanted to be. One young man said, "I want to be a movie critic." That man was Gene Siskel. The other said, "I want to be a columnist." That was Clarence Page. Ron said, "I want to be a foreign correspondent."

All three got their dream jobs.

In the many years Ron worked for the Tribune, he covered some of the most harrowing global events of the 20th century, including the Vietnam War and the fall of Saigon, the collapse of Cambodia to the communist Khmer Rouge regime, and the Tiananmen Square Massacre in China. He received numerous awards for his work and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize three times, including in 1976, the year he lost to Sydney Schanberg from The New York Times, who won for his coverage of the fall of Phnom Penh.........

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