Ray Eldon Hiebert

Ray Eldon Hiebert, founding dean of the University of Maryland College of Journalism and an expert on international communication, died August 5, 2023, in Carmel, CA. He was 91.

Born in Freeman, S.D., on May 21, 1932, he was brought to California as an infant by his parents, Peter Hiebert and Helen Kunkel, who made the long trip in a Chrysler sedan with Ray and five siblings (a sixth arrived a few years later). His father, a college professor, had lost his job because of the Dust Bowl. The family settled in Bakersfield, and moved later to Los Angeles, where Ray went to high school. He was class president at Culter Academy (now the Linfield School) where he was editor of Culter’s literary magazine and lettered in four sports. Tennis became a lifelong love.

His career in journalism began with a paper route at age 10, delivering the Bakersfield Californian and the Los Angeles Times. It nearly ended on a nice Saturday when he attended a picnic and skipped his deliveries. Annoyed customers called the circulation manager and Ray was fired.

He again got a job delivering the Los Angeles Times that lasted until he went off to college. He covered high school sports for the Los Angeles Examiner, gaining experience that later would pay off professionally. His sports editor at the Examiner, Ira Walsh, offered him a fulltime sports reporting job when he graduated from high school, but on his parents’ advice Ray turned down the offer to go to college, causing Walsh to give him a profanity-laced lecture on how a college education would ruin him as a journalist. Walsh later became head of the Hearst Foundation’s college journalism scholarship program and named Ray to the Foundation’s board of advisors.

In his freshman year of college, Ray was appointed co-editor of the newspaper at a small Midwestern college (Bethel) before spending his sophomore year at San Jose State University, then transferring to Stanford University on a scholarship. After graduating from Stanford, he was drafted into the U.S. Army in the waning days of the Korean War. His first encounter with Monterey County was in basic training at Fort Ord. Instead of Korea he was sent to France where he served as editor of the Signal Corps newspaper. Being stationed in France enabled him to explore Europe and ignited his love of international travel.

He worked at the Long Island Press while completing a master’s degree at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, and later at The American Banker. He left full-time journalism on the recommendation of his Columbia dean, Edward Barrett, who felt he might have a greater impact on young journalists by teaching freedom of the press than by practicing it. At age 26, Ray was appointed assistant professor at The American University in Washington, D.C., and was chairman of the department of journalism and broadcasting there by age 30, working part-time at NBC News. With a grant from the Kiplinger Foundation, Ray created the Washington Journalism Center, a program bringing promising young journalists to Washington for a semester of seminars with newsmakers and media internships.

The University of Maryland recruited him in 1968 to revamp its journalism department. Four years later, the program was elevated to college status and Ray became its first dean. In the following years as a professor he concentrated on working with graduate students and served as chair or committee member of dozens of master’s theses and doctoral dissertations. He continued as dean until 1980. He remained on the faculty till his retirement in 1998 and taught another 10 years on a part-time basis.

In 1976, the U.S. State Department invited him to give lectures on freedom of the press in 13 African countries. The experience changed his life, taking him around the world as a journalism lecturer and program director. He directed the Voice of America’s summer journalism fellowship program for Third World journalists and broadcasters and conducted short courses in Africa and the Caribbean. He served as director of the American Journalism Center in Budapest for five years, offering short courses for journalists and university students on the techniques of objective journalism. He also worked with the University of Maryland to develop American-style journalism education in China. Ray was given the University’s Landmark Award for international service for his work in more than 50 different countries.

Throughout his career, Ray continued to write and edit. He was author, co-author, or editor of more than 25 books, including Mass Media: An Introduction to Modern Communication, one of the first textbooks to deal comprehensively with all media, and of Courtier to the Crowd, a biography of public relations pioneer Ivy Lee, who promoted transparency in organizational communication long before the idea was adopted widely. He was the founding editor of the Public Relations Review, one of the most widely read social science journals in the world.

In retirement, Ray returned home to California from Maryland, settling in Carmel Valley in 2016. He loved the views of the Santa Lucias and Sierra de Salinas from his Mid Valley home and thoroughly enjoyed the Central Coast’s stunning beauty and cultural riches, especially the Monterey Symphony, Bach Festival, and chamber music ensembles. He was a member of the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC, and St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church in Carmel Valley.

He is survived by the family he loved: his wife of 37 years, Sheila Gibbons Hiebert; four children from his marriage to Roselyn Hiebert: David, Steven (Christina Calkins) and Douglas (Kelly Meyer) Hiebert, and Emily (Kevin) Townsend; six grandchildren: Kyle (Sarah), Lindsay Ola Sun and Kelsey Townsend, and Laurel, Will and Sienna Hiebert (Nick Hlatky); two great-grandchildren: Oscar and Harper Townsend; a sister, Carol (John) Wiebe; and numerous nieces and nephews. He is fondly remembered by many students he encouraged over his 50-year career in education.

Ray never stopped believing in the transformative power of education and travel and funded programs in support of them. His family suggests that those who wish to remember him with a memorial gift consider a donation to the University of Maryland College Park Foundation, Inc., designated for the Hiebert Journalism International Travel Fund, 4603 Calvert Rd., College Park MD 20740 or online at go.umd.edu/HiebertFund