UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Around 3 o'clock in the afternoon on a sunny spring Saturday in Happy Valley, Ford Risley pulled an Atlanta Braves ballcap from his pocket, put it atop his head and walked out of the Bryce Jordan Center carrying his academic regalia over his arm.
Undergraduate commencement exercises for the Class of 2025 had ended — and so had one of Risley’s final official duties as a faculty member in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications.
Risley, a distinguished professor of communications, was headed out of the arena and toward retirement after 30 years as a Penn State faculty member. It was a far cry — and maybe 70 or so degrees warmer — from how his career as a faculty member started.
He joined the University as an assistant professor in 1995, having earned his bachelor’s degree at Auburn University, his master’s at the University of Georgia and his doctorate at the University of Florida.
“I’m from the South and had never experienced the kind of winters we get here,” Risley said. “It was cold — bitterly cold.”
Risley survived that first winter, though, and he thrived during his tenure — improving as a teacher, maintaining his research and writing productivity and providing a model of collegiality and hard work that set a standard in the Bellisario College. He also established the foundation for a legacy that’ll continue for years.
“I’ve enjoyed pretty much every minute of it,” Risley said.
Productive and steady
Risley did not rush toward retirement, nor toward the finish line, and he made his decision with the kind of level-headed pragmatism that defined his career. He just knew it was time, he said, three decades passing maybe a little more quickly than anticipated because he was so busy.
He taught American journalism, mass media history, reporting methods, feature writing, pedagogy in communications, and many other courses. He also earned the Bellisario College Alumni Society Board's Excellence in Teaching Award.
Risley served as associate dean for undergraduate and graduate education from 2014 to 2020. Before that, he was head of the Department of Journalism from 2002 to 2014.
His research centers on mass media history, especially Civil War-era journalism. He was the editor of American Journalism, the quarterly scholarly journal of the American Journalism Historians Association, from 2014 to 2020. In 2020, he received the AJHA’s Sidney Kobre Award for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism History.
Additionally, he authored, co-authored or edited five books, including “How America Gets the News: A History of U.S. Journalism.” His book, "Abolition and the Press: The Moral Struggle Against Slavery" won the American Journalism Historians Association's award for the best book on media history. He also has published articles, essays and book reviews in American Journalism, Civil War History, Georgia Historical Quarterly and Journalism History.
Risley also founded the Newspaper Journalists Oral History Program, housed in the Bellisario College, which will continue after his departure, coordinated by David Joachim, professor of practice in the Department of Journalism.
Risley's influence was steady and wide ranging, impacting undergraduate and graduate students alike. Early in his career, he learned from colleagues like Dan Pfaff, a professor who provided mentorship and friendship when he first arrived, and Risley later built relationships with colleagues like Russ Eshelman, who succeeded him as department head.
Hard working and humble
In the history of the Bellisario College itself, Risley’s hard-working, humble presence provided an important foundation as the college grew in reputation and size while he was a faculty member and leader.
He's enjoyed the journey, he said.
“I fumbled around my first couple of years and was not as good a teacher as I am now. I’m a better scholar too,” Risley said. “I think I understand historical scholarship better and I understand the importance of history — where we need to go and how history should be presented. I could always put things together and tell a story, but good history is more than a story.
“History is analysis and much more. I’m better at that and a lot of that comes with experience. In terms of teaching, a lot of it is just being in the classroom and working with students more and more. I love seeing students grow and gain confidence in their work.”
Risley’s effort and productivity earned the respect of those at Penn State and beyond.
“His steady, even-keeled management at the undergraduate and graduate levels was a great help to me early in my tenure as dean, and his perspectives and presence made Penn State and our college a better place throughout his career,” Bellisario College Dean Marie Hardin said.
“Ford uplifts us all. He is the scholar’s gold standard,” said Tom Mascaro of Bowling Green State University, chair of the awards committee for the American Journalism Historians Association, which presented him with that lifetime achievement award in 2020.
Still, other opportunities have arisen and become appealing. He has served on the board of the Centre County Historical Society for more than 10 years and for the past three years he has co-edited the Centre County Encyclopedia of History & Culture. He said he and his wife Mary also want to spend more time with their children and grandchildren.
“I still consider myself a southerner because that’s where I grew up an where my heart is, but I’ve developed a great appreciation for Pennsylvania and love this area,” Risley said.
So, Risley worked his way toward retirement, thinning files in his ground floor office of Carnegie Building more than two months before his official retirement date of June 30, 2025.
As a historian, he said, he needed the time. A “mad dash” to the end would prohibit him from pouring over things like one of the first syllabi he developed when he arrived at Penn State three decades earlier.
Plus, he played an active role in planning the Keystone News Summit, which was held May 15-16 in Harrisburg and offered a forum for educators and journalists from across the commonwealth to discuss the challenges facing local journalism and ponder potential partnerships and solutions. More than 120 people attended the event, which was a career bookend, of sorts, because one of Risley’s first official duties as a faculty member included a trip to the state capital.
The respect he had from those in both higher education and journalism was obvious at the event, and it was an example of Risley’s career-long work ethic. When he arrived at Penn State, he knew nothing about Pennsylvania. That’s changed greatly thanks to his appreciation for history, as well as his curiosity and work ethic.
Risley said he's not sure what’s ahead in retirement but he’ll maintain his strong diet of daily news consumption, play golf a bit more (“I’m lousy but it’s fun.”) and just see what happens.
As always, at a smooth, steady and productive pace.