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Vernon Keel began a long career
in journalism on his hometown newspaper just three miles from where the Wolf
family was murdered twenty years before he was born. He earned his Ph.D. from
the University of Minnesota where he developed skills in legal and historical
research. For more than thirty years, he taught media law and headed journalism
and communication schools at South Dakota State University, The University of
North Dakota, and Wichita State University.
Keel was active in the Society of Professional
Journalists throughout his career, and was the first president of the Kansas
Sunshine Coalition for Open Government. He was elected president of the
Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication in 1990 after
serving for six years on the national accrediting council in journalism and
mass communication.
In addition, he served on several national
association committees and was on the William Randolph Hearst Foundation
Steering Committee for many years. He spent two sabbatical leaves at the
University of Montreal, first in the communication department and then in the
law schoolÕs Center for Research on Public Law. Most recently, he has
taught at Regis University in Denver and in Colorado State UniversityÕs masters
degree program in communication management at the Downtown Denver Center.
He and his wife, Bernadette, live in Denver.
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