STUART WILSON SECHRIEST, 1914-2011
Stuart Wilson Sechriest, former newspaper man, Army officer and professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, died Thursday (Oct. 13). He was 97.
Sechriest began to teach in what is now the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media in 1946, hired by legendary dean O.J. "Skipper" Coffin. Sechriest taught news editing and photography and was a General College adviser.
“He was an institution in the school and a wonderful character, loving to tell jokes and compose limericks,” said Jan Johnson Yopp, Walter Spearman Professor in the school, dean of the Summer School and a former student of Sechriest’s.
Sechriest brought wire services to the classroom so that students could get experience editing real-life news copy. He also taught the first course in press photography at UNC. After teaching for 32 years, he retired in 1977.
“He was widely known for his sense of humor and was much beloved by those who knew him,” said his daughter, Mary Pauline Sechriest of Chapel Hill, a lawyer retired from the University attorney’s staff. “His students have gone on to excel at newspapers around the U.S., and many have entered the field of law.”
She said her father “believed in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.”
Sechriest was born in 1914 in Davidson County near Thomasville to John Franklin and Carrie Fouts Sechriest. He was the last survivor in a family of nine brothers and sisters. He graduated from public schools in Davidson County and UNC-Chapel Hill. He got his first taste of the newspaper business in a class Coffin taught in 1933, his sophomore year at the University. Now, a student award in the school bears Sechriest’s name.
Sechriest volunteered for the U.S. Army Air Forces in September 1942 while on the staff of the Greensboro Daily News and served during World War II. He was discharged from the Air Force in 1946. In 1948, he was commissioned in the Army Reserves and became a Selective Service officer, then public information officer for the Selective Service in the state of North Carolina. He worked for the National Guard and Army Reserves until his retirement with the rank of colonel in 1974.
Sechriest was married for more than 50 years to the former Carolyn Frazier Tuck of Virgilina, Va. She died in August 2001. Both were communicants of Chapel of the Cross, an Episcopal parish in Chapel Hill.
Surviving are two daughters, Mary Pauline Sechriest of Chapel Hill and Elizabeth Sechriest Cornella of Boone. Also surviving are his son-in-law, Dr. Rick Cornella and three grandchildren, Scott, Valerie and Kimberly Cornella of Boone.
Funeral services were held Oct. 16 at the Chapel of the Cross.
Friends and colleagues are also welcome to post remembrances of Sechriest using the "Add comment" link below.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Hussman School of Journalism and Media Foundation of North Carolina, CB 3365, 117 Carroll Hall, UNC-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC 27599-3365. Or make a memorial gift online at jomc.unc.edu/gift. Please select "In Memory of Stuart Sechriest (2401)" from the "Please select a Fund" menu.
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