Former Duquesne journalism professor Maggie Patterson dies

Maggie Jones Patterson, a revered journalism professor who mentored generations of student reporters at Duquesne University, returned to campus in October to help celebrate the student newspaper’s 100th anniversary.

Just weeks later, the longtime educator and advocate for young journalists died Monday of a heart attack following surgery, leaving behind a legacy of integrity, mentorship and passion for the craft. She was 80.

“In my view, there was no journalism and media department at Duquesne without Maggie Patterson,” said Duquesne President Ken Gormley.

Pamela Walck, who worked as a military and politics reporter and joined Duquesne’s faculty in 2015, worked closely with Patterson for a decade.

“You get so much more out of life building up people and Maggie was one of those people … I think that sometimes in business and in the academy, women can just be absolutely horrible to each other and Maggie certainly knew that too,” said Walck, who is now an associate professor at Duquesne. “It informed how she treated the women coming up behind her.”

Patterson was born in Pittsburgh in April 1945 to Ruth Wilson Jones and Robert Jones and graduated from St. Anselm High School in Swissvale.

She studied journalism at Ohio University and took her first job as a reporter for the Pittsburgh Press between the late 1960s to early 70s, according to her family, when women were not widely accepted in the journalism industry.

In April, she told The Duquesne Duke student newspaper about the challenges of gaining respect in a male dominated field while at the Pittsburgh Press.

Although she was initially assigned to cover what were then considered “women’s topics,” Patterson found ways to break into hard news, earning her first front-page story in the Pittsburgh Press while interviewing activist Betty Friedan at the Hilton Hotel. During their interview, Friedan decided to enter a lounge that was exclusively for men, according to The Duke.

“I never had to even question… the value that I could bring as a political reporter. No one ever questioned it, but it was because of people like her. Women can do this too, something as simple as that,” Walck said. “I think that she was definitely a feminist to her core.”

After her time at the Pittsburgh Press, Patterson earned a master’s in fine arts from the University of Pittsburgh and taught journalism at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. In 1982, she joined what would become Duquesne University’s media department, where she mentored both students and fellow faculty members.

Once a week Patterson, Walck and a few other women from Duquesne’s faculty would get together and go out for lunch to joke, discuss research, tell stories and find community in one another.

Patterson retired from Duquesne in April, but continued to be involved in planning The Duke’s 100 year anniversary celebration.

“Even though she was technically retired, she was working as hard as ever, because she really was intent on recognizing … the former editors and alums of The Duke,” Gormley said.

During her time at the university, Patterson was the head of the Duquesne University Student Publications Board and taught the Women’s and Gender Studies program at Duquesne.

She was also a member of Pittsburgh’s Society of Professional Journalists chapter and on the board at PublicSource, an online nonprofit news service for the Pittsburgh area.

Bob Kerlik, a 2003 Duquesne graduate who later worked as a reporter for TribLive and now serves as a spokesman for the Allegheny County Airport Authority, was first a student of Patterson’s and later joined her on Duquesne’s Publication Board.

Kerlik said that part of the reason he joined the board was to be around Patterson.

During their time together on the board, Kerlik recalled Patterson advocating strongly with Duquesne’s administration to ensure that The Duke stayed fully student-run and independent from the university.

“Maggie was always right there, doing her job as the head of the (publication) board … standing for student independence,” Kerlik said.

Patterson co-authored four books titled: “Murder in our Midst: Comparing the Ethics of Crime Coverage in an Age of Globalized News,” “Rooney: A Sporting Life,” “Birth or Abortion? Private Struggles in a Political World” and “Behind the Lines: Case Studies in Political Reporting,” according to her biography on Duquesne’s website.

“Murder in our Midst: Comparing the Ethics of Crime Coverage in an Age of Globalized News,” was published by the Oxford University Press in 2021, and was her favorite of all of her books, she told The Duke.

The book details the journalism ethics from 10 countries across the world. While working on the book Patterson and her co-author Romayne Smith Fullerton would travel during the summer and conduct interviews.

Patterson is survived by her husband Rob Ruck; son Alex Ruck, and daughter-in-law Alison Perrotti; granddaughter Sophia and brothers Ken Jones, Dave Jones and Bob Jones.

Alex remembers his mother as someone who listens, jokes and tries to make the world a better place.

In September, Alex and Patterson traveled to Dublin, Ireland for a Steelers game. Patterson, who was Irish, loved Ireland for its lineage, history and storytelling, her son said.

“While exceptionally sad it has been profound to see her impact,” Alex Ruck said about the outreach from the journalism community following her passing.

Patterson’s family is holding visitation services from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Wednesday and funeral proceedings at 1 p.m. on Thursday at John A. Freyvogel Sons.