Marlowe Froke, a retired PSU journalism professor, died this past Tuesday, February 23 at Mount Nittany Medical Center. He is survived by his wife, Marliene, and their two daughters, Paula and Dana.
Having grown up in the small, rural town of Vienna, South Dakota, Froke always saw the important role television could play in educating the masses, and he worked hard to accomplish this throughout his entire career, especially during his time here at Penn State. “His vision was instrumental in the early development of cable television, and in how cable television developed locally, regionally and nationally,” said Telecommunications Professor Patrick Parsons.
In 1959 he joined the PSU staff as an associate professor of journalism and developed the school's first broadcast journalism curriculum. After being named Penn State’s director of broadcasting, he created WPSX (you might know it as WPSU) and took the lead in the early days of cable and public TV to establish networks of connections among Pennsylvania stations and cable operations that preceded today's Public Broadcasting System.
Find out more about Froke's life and accomplishments after the jump.
I found out yesterday that my little sister has decided to accept Penn State's offer of admission. While she is keen to strike her own path (in other words, an Onward State writer she probably won't be), I want to give her as much wisdom as possible before she gets here.
So, today, for all the little brothers and little sisters and future Penn Staters of the world, I want to know,
At this point last week, many of us were recovering from sleep deprived delirium, as THON had just ended. After having a week to cool down from the hype and hysteria of THON weekend, I started to wonder about what was in store for THON in the future.
Consider this year's total: $7,838,054.36, roughly a 4.6% increase from last year. Given a recession and a rather botched canning weekend (stupid snow), this was a major achievement and represented a ton of hard work. However, it got me thinking. What will happen when THON reaches a "steady state" for the amount of money it raises every year? I don't think this will happen soon, as there is still plenty of room for THON to grow within PSU. But, what happens when (if?) THON reaches a point of zero growth? Read the full post for my thoughts.