Johanna Zalkin in front of a wall of her father's memorabilia

By Elizabeth Fritz
Ag communications, sophomore

Of all Johanna Zalkin's childhood memories growing up in Brooklyn, among those she cherishes the most were the trips to the newsroom of the New York Daily News.

That's where her dad, Jerry Rose, worked for 55 years. He loved the newspaper world, Zalkin said.

That's why in 1996, Zalkin created the Fay and Jerry Rose Book Fund in memory of her parents and of the work her father accomplished. The fund is for the journalism classes offered by the department.

The fund was created because the state cannot fund all of the needs professors have, so the opportunity was there to help, said Zalkin, whose husband, Howard, is a retired Purdue professor of biochemistry.

The aim for the fund is to help students go into print journalism and help provide materials for print journalism courses. Some of the items that the fund has helped with are books, software, and printers.

Assistant Professor Jane Natt said the book fund has made a real difference. "I think people mistakenly think if they don't have a lot of money, they can't start something like this," she said. "But take this example. Last year we used the book fund to get a $50 subscription to Gallup polls. Having access to that material was invaluable to my journalism students, and the book fund made that possible. Fifty dollars might not seem like a huge cost, but it was $50 we did not have without this fund. "

Natt said it is her goal to train print journalists whom "Jerry Rose would be proud of."

Jerry Rose, standing, and his brother Lester in a 1964 Daily News image

When Rose began at the Daily News, he was a police beat reporter. He made his way up over the years to editor. Rose covered such well-known stories as the Hindenberg disaster and the Lindbergh-baby kidnapping. Rose retired from the Daily News in 1979 and passed away in 1989.

Rose also taught journalism at Long Island University and New York University. Rose has won several journalism awards and was inducted into the Brooklyn Hall of Fame.

For more information about donating to this fund or creating a fund of your own, please contact the Liberal Arts Development Office at (765) 494-2711.