The Defense Information School (DINFOS) selected Stephen Doig, the Knight Chair in Journalism for the Walter Cronkite School, to be a member of its inaugural hall of fame class.
“I got an email out of the blue from the people at the school,” Doig said. “I am delighted they (chose me). I was surprised to hear from them and quite honored by it.”
DINFOS is a military college located in Fort Meade, Md., that produces public affairs and visual information graduates for the U.S. Department of Defense. Doig remembers his time there and being drafted for the war.
“A recruiting officer was talking to all of us as we were waiting for our physicals and he told me I ought to sign up for an extra year, so for three years instead of two year draft,” Doig said. “Then the Army would send me to DINFOS. I knew nothing about it and (the recruiter said) it beats holding a rifle in Vietnam.”
At DINFOS, Doig went through a 10-week course where he took classes in basic journalism, a subject he had never taken interest in before. After graduation, Doig was sent to Vietnam to become a reporter for the Army. When Doig was done reporting in Vietnam, the Army sent him back for his last year and a half to teach at DINFOS.
“I’m the first to admit that I really got a lot out of my Army experience, happily wasn’t injured or killed or any of those distressing things, and actually wound up with a career out of it,” Doig said.
After his year of reporting for the Army, Doig graduated from Dartmouth College with a political science degree and joined a smaller publication in Florida for three years before accepting a position at the Miami Herald for 19 years, where he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 1993 for his work on “What Went Wrong,” a study of the damage patterns from Hurricane Andrew.
In 1996, Doig joined the faculty at the Cronkite School teaching classes that are part of the school’s professional master’s program. Currently, Doig is traveling to different countries in Europe to train professional reporters and editors.
“One of the really nice things about my current job, as the Knight Chair, is a big part of my job is working with professional reporters teaching them what is my specialty is, which is data analysis, which can be used for finding stories and government data and things like that,” Doig said.
Karen Eifert, director of public affairs for DINFOS, said the school had to go back as far as they could for nominees because this was the inaugural class.
“We have a lot of prominent people who are out and about in the world doing great things that actually got their start here at Defense Information School,” Eifert said.
The DINFOS Alumni Association, the governing board of the school and DINFOS Commandant Col. Jeremy Martin wanted to make the hall of fame happen for those who have graduated.
“I have been in command for little over a year. I have had great interest in the Hall of Fame and I wanted to ensure we got our inaugural nominees before a board,” Martin said.
The nomination process started with the Alumni Association choosing nominees from past graduates of DINFOS. Then the governing board voted on those they wanted in the hall of fame.
DINFOS chose seven individuals for their inaugural class and will have an induction ceremony for the members on March 14. Other members that were chosen include former Vice President Walter Mondale and New York Times bestselling author John Roswell Camp, who writes under the pseudonym John Sandford.
Contact the reporter at chelsa.thomas@asu.edu
