The late Giles Fowler, associate professor emeritus of the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, has been posthumously named a recipient of 2021 Faculty/Staff Inspiration Award by the Iowa State University Alumni Association.
Established in 2011, this honor presents a way for former ISU students to recognize current or former ISU faculty or staff members who had a significant influence in their lives as students at ISU.
Fowler and the other awardees will be recognized Friday, June 4, during a virtual ceremony. Registration closes at noon on June 3. Click here to register for the event and leave a note of congratulations to one of the three recipients. This event will be livestreamed on the ISUAA social media Facebook page.
From the ISUAA website:
“Father, husband, journalist, author, teacher, and cheerful troublemaker.” Just one colorful description of Giles Merrill Fowler.
Fowler grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. He was introduced to reporting at the knee of his father, a journalist for The Kansas City Star. Fowler would start his own career at The Star before traveling overseas for a year with The Times of London.
His interest in teaching later landed him at the Greenlee School of Journalism. Fowler was known well for his conservative use of adjectives, his deletion of exclamation points (“reserved only for the second coming of John Lennon or Jesus Christ,” one student recalls him saying), and for his elusive but well-deserved high marks.
Fowler had a love for life, and he showed it … whether capturing a class with his storytelling abilities or talking well into the night over a glass (or four, as guests account) of the good stuff, punctuating the conversation with his variety of signature phrases.
“Giles, an experienced newsman, dazzled the students immediately with his quick wit, his professional success, his energy and enthusiasm, and his belief that journalism was a high calling,” one of his nominators wrote.
It is a lesson that — as his students can attest — is important now more than ever. Fowler passed away in 2018. His loss is felt by his family, his friends, and the many, many minds he molded. He was an annual member of the ISU Alumni Association.
The Faculty-Staff Inspiration Award Program is funded by the Nancy and Richard Degner ISU Alumni Association Endowment.