Owen Johnson
Topic: Ernie Pyle -Stories of and by this famous Hoosier WWII correspondent
Professor Johnson will give an overall biographical sketch on Ernie Pyle and talk about his importance in World War II. But mostly Prof. Johnson wants to talk about the war correspondents close connections to Indiana that is reflected in his columns, 1935-45.
Associate Professor of Journalism, Adjunct Associate Professor of History He served as director of IU's Russian & East European Institute, 1991-95. Johnson is one of the most knowledgeable people in the United States on Russian and East European mass media. He had written books on this topic has a couple and is in the process of writing two books on Ernie Pyle.
The day after his talk to the University Women's Club he will leave a journey with IU journalism students traveling to England and France retracing the path World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle made so many years ago. While many Indiana University students will be hitting warm and sunny beaches for spring break, 30 journalism students will be retracing the steps of thousands of soldiers in Normandy, France, at the "Bloody Omaha" beach.
Following Ernie Pyle's Path
Ernie Pyle in the summer of 1942. Shortly after the invasion of North Africa, he boarded the British transport Rangitiki, part of a great convoy reinforcing the invading armies, and arrived at Oran, where this picture was taken.
More specifically, they'll be seeing where famed war correspondent and fellow Hoosier Ernie Pyle reported on the lives of those soldiers embroiled in World War II
Education: undergrad. Degree from Washington State University, 1968, M.A. at University of Michigan, 1970, Ph.D. at University of Michigan, 1978
Johnson's immediate research task is compiling the letters of World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle into a book. His medium-term research task examines the relationship between news media and Slovak national development in the twentieth century. His longer-term research is writing a history of the Indiana Daily Student, leading eventually to a history of the college press in the United States.
Associate professor Owen V. Johnson, a scholar of Ernie Pyle's life and writing, wrote this essay detailing Pyle's life and times.
When I was a child, growing up in the state of Washington, Indiana came to mean two things: the Indy 500 and Ernie Pyle.
I found the 500 on the radio one Memorial Day. I discovered Ernie Pyle in my dad's wartime edition of Brave Men, a collection of Pyle's columns. Pyle died 10 months before I was born.
As I grew up and my hobby of journalism turned into a profession, the name Ernie Pyle came to mean someone who wrote exceptionally well. He epitomized for large numbers of people what good journalism was, even though most of his work consisted of columns of impression, interpretation and opinion.
Ernie Pyle, struck down by a sniper's bullet in 1945, would have been 100 years old, Aug. 3, 2000.
Remembering Ernie Pyle's IU Ties
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