Poynter academic chair to honor the work of Roy Peter Clark

“My favorite chair cost 29 bucks. So why does my new chair cost half a million?” – RPC

Most of the people who have things named after them are dead.

But not all of them.

Here in St. Petersburg, Florida, we have the Dali Museum and Al Lang Field and the Snell Arcade, and Williams Park, and Hollins High School. Dead, dead, dead, dead, dead.

Pointing to Poynter

Since 1977 I have worked in St. Pete as a writing teacher, most of those years in a beautiful building on Third Street South called the Poynter Institute. Mr. Poynter died in 1978, so I only got a year to see him in action.

“Who is that little guy with the bowtie?” I asked an editor of the St. Petersburg Times after my job interview. I learned quickly that the diminutive Hoosier played a big role in turning his newspaper into a beacon and in devoting his energy and wealth into improving this sunny place he came to love.

He left his newspaper to a non-profit school he created – he called it the Modern Media Institute – and modestly did not want it to carry the name Poynter. But he died, so we did. And we were not the only places to carry his name. Across the street from our school is Poynter Park. That large USF building just to the north is the Nelson Poynter library.

I am trying to think of someone else in St. Pete who has had not one, not two, but THREE things named after them. Oh yeah – that would be me!

The Roy Peter Clark Chair in Writing and Editing

Roy’s favorite chair. Photo provided.

By the time I retired, so to speak, from the Institute in 2016, most of the rooms had been named after key figures who helped shape the Times and the school: Gene Patterson, Andy Barnes, Karen Dunlap, Jim Naughton. I suggested that they could honor me with a plaque in the first stall in the Men’s Room on the second floor nearest to my old office: “Know that you are sitting in a sacred place where many an idea, article, or writing program was first conceived.”

Instead of that porcelain throne, it turns out, I am getting a chair.

See that green chair in the photo? It’s my favorite. It is meant for the patio and cost about $29.  The chair that Poynter has in mind is a little pricier: $500,000.

Consider all that as a prologue to news that fills me with hope and pride and has consequences for journalism at every level and for the literary and cultural life of the community that the Poynter family came to know and love.

The Institute is creating an endowment (money!) to hire a teacher to fill an academic chair named after me. I already have my name attached to a literary prize and a writing contest, but the Roy Peter Clark Chair in Writing and Editing has the potential for a much greater impact.

Poynter famous world-wide for its writing programs

In the earliest years of its history, Poynter became famous for its teaching on various aspects of the craft of journalism, especially writing. For four decades, if you were a journalist or other public writer and wanted to understand the best practices of the craft, you had to pay attention to what Poynter was doing in its seminars, national conferences, retreats, workshops, articles, and its books.

Quickly our reach became international, with programs as far away as Scandinavia, South Africa, and Singapore. But even with the vast expansion of our influence, we never forgot our home base, creating programs for high school and college students, and summer writing camps for children and public-school teachers that lasted more than 30 years.

But the teaching of craft would become a luxury. The new century carried with it two great existential crises: 1) The loss of the business model that sustained newspaper journalism until the dawn of the digital age, and 2) Attacks against the press from political forces that relied on disinformation and propaganda.

With new organizations losing their resources – and their way – Poynter offered support to journalists and their allies in crisis, creating new programs in leadership, ethics, and entrepreneurship.

The craft of great writing and reporting in the public interest faded from view, but lived on in our DNA and in the memory and practices of storytellers all over the world.

Poynter has decided to revive these programs, not with a nostalgic attachment to its past (or my past!), but to a determined effort to that notion that – to borrow a phrase from Huey Lewis – that the heart of rock ‘n’ roll – the rhythm of great journalism – is still beating.

If you would like to donate to this effort, check out this page on the Poynter website.

(My wife Karen and I donated the first $1,000. I am willing to donate my favorite chair – with your name spray-painted on the back – to the most generous donor.)

Roy holding forth (from a seated position). Poynter Institute photo.