Remembering Cliff Rowe

Brennan LaBrie

Editor-in-Chief

The Pacific Lutheran University community, as well as the Pacific Northwest journalism community, have lost a legend.

Cliff Rowe, a long-time PLU professor and the driving force behind the university’s journalism program, passed away on Jan. 5, 2022. He was 84.

Rowe first came to PLU as a part-time instructor in 1975 while on the news staff at the Seattle Times. A graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Rowe had previously written for the Chicago Sun-Times and other daily newspapers. In 1980, Rowe joined the PLU faculty as its first full-time journalism professor. He would spend the next 35 years mentoring generations of future journalists at the university as both professor and advisor to The Mast. He received the national teaching award from the Society of Professional Journalists in 1995 and  the PLU Faculty Excellence Award in Mentoring in 2006. 

One of the future journalists that Rowe mentored was Natalie DeFord, a 2016 PLU grad and current Mast advisor. 

“It’s hard to sum up in words, but I’m forever thankful for Cliff’s guidance and support, which was some of the best and most genuine support I’ve ever received,” she said. “He touched the hearts of so many students, and we all knew he really cared, giving us way more than red marks on our news stories, but also friendship and mentorship that has stayed with me. He really made a difference for me and my peers.”

Rowe’s mentorship extended to his peers as well. Professor of Communication Rob Wells, who joined the PLU faculty in 2003, said that he considered himself a student of Rowe’s.

“You could not help but learn if you were in a classroom with Cliff,” Wells said. “He was an educator in every sense of the word, and his passion for the written word and for information and the truth was just unimpeachable.”

Wells called Rowe a “fierce defender of the first amendment, of journalism, and of free speech” and a “pinnacle of integrity and ethics.” Rowe held a particular interest in media ethics and served as a member of the Washington News Council, an independent forum that worked to hold state media organizations accountable for their ethics and fairness.

“He was funny, thoughtful, whip smart, dedicated to students, and dedicated to education,” Wells said. 

Rowe’s impact continues to be felt by journalists across the country and world, Wells said, but nowhere is his legacy more present than at the university he called home for most of his career. 

“We like to think of PLU as a student-centered place,” Wells said. “But this guy, we’re standing on his shoulders. He was the one who really showed us how it was done and really made a remarkable difference in peoples’ lives. We have lost a true giant in journalism and journalism education.”

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