Thursday morning’s memorial under Iowa State’s campanile honoring journalists Alison Parker and Adam Ward, tragically killed during a live broadcast Wednesday morning, had a far-reaching impact as the journalism community dealt with the tragedy. The memorial was organized by Alex Duffy, senior in public relations, and offered students, faculty and staff a chance to come together and honor the lives of the dedicated Virginia journalists while supporting each other along with the importance of community journalism. Locally, television stations KCCI and WOI Local 5 ran coverage of the memorial, which you can view below:
The Scripps Howard Foundation also shared a Facebook post about Greenlee School Director Michael’s Bugeja’s "thoughtful remarks" delivered during the Thursday morning memorial. You can find the whole post from the Scripps Howard Foundation on their Facebook page, and Bugeja’s full remarks here.
“We heard from academic and professional advisers of both Alison Parker and Adam Ward who said the memorial helped them focus on the contributions that both journalists had made in their rising careers," Bugeja said. "Administrators from James Madison also wrote me that the memorial was important as the semester had not started yet at their campus and that our event gave them time to reflect in anticipation of the return of the student body.
"We feel a close kinship with James Madison and Virginia Tech.”