Rick Musser

Classes: Research & Writing, Multimedia Reporting, History of Journalism, Advanced Reporting

First year at KU: 1976

Degrees: B.A., creative writing, DePauw University; M.A., journalism, Indiana University; Ph.D., Mass Communications, Indiana University

Honors: Kemper Teaching Excellence Award, 2001; Radio & Television News Directors Foundation Fellowship, 2001; Clyde Reed Teaching Professorship

“Over the years, my continuing source of pride has been the national-award-winning work my students have produced. They have written investigative stories and touching features that, years later, still make me proud to read.” - Rick Musser

by Wilson Miner

Rick Musser isn't one to let go of a dream too easily. Take those model planes, for instance, that you see when you walk into his office in Stauffer-Flint Hall. He's been building them since he was a kid, but back then Musser's interest in aviation was anything but miniature.

"I guess I wanted to be a fighter pilot," Musser recalls, "but my eyes are too bad."

Getting even

It wasn't just less-than-perfect eyesight that kept Musser from pursuing his dreams of flight. He developed an interest in journalism in high school, where he edited and wrote for his school paper. As an undergraduate, Musser took a turn at creative writing, but found he agreed with Robert Frost's assessment of writing without rules.

"It was like playing tennis without the net," Musser says. "I liked telling a story using the facts at hand."

If Musser had any doubts about choosing to go into journalism, he quelled them early. He says he knew he was on the right track when he realized a principal wanted him to stay after school for something he had written in the school paper.

"And I've been getting even with the S.O.B.s ever since," he says.

Nuts and bolts

When Del Brinkman, a teacher of Musser's at Indiana University, came to KU to become dean of journalism, Musser decided to look into the school. He recognized in KU a journalism school that valued what he calls "nuts and bolts journalism." In 1976, he took an opening as general manager of the University Daily Kansan, a job he still says is his favorite.

In his classes today, he's still building on the basics.

"I want kids to come away with the ability to tell a story Ð concisely, in an entertaining way," he says.

But there's more to what Musser teaches than the facts at hand.

He says, "I want to challenge students to find something in themselves they didn't know they had."

The best Job in the world

After 25 years of teaching, Musser is still living out a dream, even if he still just builds planes instead of flying them.

"I figured out a long time ago that being a professor is the best job in the world," he says, without a hint of irony.

He admits there are days when he would rather be doing something else, and he's ventured out to work at various magazines and publishing companies over the years. But for Musser, teaching always just made more sense.

"There are plenty of people who are successful in the media now who would love to have this job," he says, and pauses. "And I've got tenure. I'll keep doing this until they wheel me out."