Last week I attended a "Mentor Night" at Rowan University. This is a program that was started by Don Bagin 30 years ago to bring graduates of Rowan's Graduate Public Relations Program back to meet with current students. This time of year seems especially hectic for all of us, and it's not really convenient to trek over to campus on a Tuesday evening when so many other things are calling for our attention at work and at home.

But I remembered how a veteran of the program took the time to meet with me when I was a student years ago, and I knew that, once again, I had to honor this request for a few hours of my time. Once again I learned that those who give are often rewarded more than those who receive. A former student of mine who is now close to graduation had come to the reception just for the possibility that he might spend some time with me.

Ron Sansone already has a great job as an SEO Copywriter at razorfish, probably the largest online communications agency in the world. He didn't come to Mentor Night for help with finding a job in his specialty, or for advice on the rigorous "comps" that come at the end of Rowan's MA program in PR, or even to discuss his thesis. He came to thank me for the online communication class he had take in the summer of 2007 and the opportunity he was given there to write for the IAOC blog.

Ron Sansone's "Digg Dirt" articles can be found here. Basically, he researched how a few partisan Ron Paul advocates were manipulating Digg to boost their candidate's web exposure. His posts generated a huge response from the online community, and he says that experience helped him land the job at razorfish.

As the Mentor Night concluded, Ron said once again that he couldn't thank me enough for the help he had in launching his career. At which point I told him there is a way to thank everyone who made his online debut possible: he can come back and be a regular contributor or even a host on the IAOC blog. Ron committed to coming back in December, and I look forward to the contributions he will make.

So thank you Ron for taking time to come say "thanks" at least week's Mentor Night. And thank you especially for making the commitment to add your voice to this blog.

To all the others who might come across this article, is there someone you can thank by contributing your time to a community that helped you?

Don Dunnington

Don Bagin was laid to rest Saturday, following a long battle with multiple-system atrophy, a neurological disease. His wife Carole told me that toward the end he could no longer communicate, a hard burden to bear for anyone but doubly so for one of the great leaders in the professional practice and teaching of communication.

But Don and Carole, their children and grandchildren did bear the burden with grace and love, and in death as in life Don set an example those who knew him will long remember.

I met Dr. Bagin nearly 20 years ago when he recruited me to teach a marketing communications course in the graduate PR program at Rowan University (then Glassboro State College). I was so impressed with the program I saw there that a few years later I enrolled in the program myself, which for the next few years put me in the unusual position of teaching my fellow classmates.

A Thanksgiving Assignment
Don was my thesis advisor, which included a small seminar class where we discussed how to research and write a thesis and prepared for the comprehensive exam that came at the end of the course of study. In November 1996, shortly before the American Thanksgiving holiday, Don handed out note cards and envelopes to the five or six of us sitting around a conference table. He told us to take the rest of the class writing a thank-you note to someone who had helped shape our lives.

This was Don's genius as a teacher: He didn't just tell his students what to do or how to do it; he made sure they actually put words into action. To Don, good intentions were always backed up with good communication and appropriate action. He practiced PR the way he practiced his life: with integrity, good humor and a large dose of gratitude. I think it was this gratitude, this ingrained thankfulness that made him such a powerful leader and helped him accomplish so much. People instinctively trust someone whose heart is filled with gratitude and respect.

An Early Test
Early in his career in 1967, Don helped stage one of the biggest public relations events any college has seen. President Lyndon B. Johnson and Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin met at Glassboro in the first summit meeting since the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was the sort of unanticipated opportunity that could have overwhelmed far more experienced PR managers, but Don kept his composure and kept his sense of fair play. Somehow he was able to treat 750 reporters, photographers and TV cameramen with equal respect whether from a small local newspaper or major network. 

In his 40 years at Rowan, Don taught more than 2,000 students. He reached hundreds of thousands more as the founder of "communications briefings" and the author some 300 articles and 15 books, including a school PR textbook that is used in universities around the world. I imagine every one of his 2,000 students, with countless more who he worked with or who read his newsletters, articles and books, has learned from Don's example to pay respect to those you meet in life, and to say "thank you" to those who help you.

A Final Assignment
So here's an opportunity for those who were touched by Don's teaching, or simply by reading about this remarkable man. Write a thank-you note to someone today. You can share your thank-you right here on this blog, if you wish. Either comment here (comments are moderated to reduce the spam, but your comment will by approved as quickly as possible), or write your own article. You can get a free account as a trusted poster to this blog by sending an email with your contact information (name, title, address, phone number and email) to dunnington at rowan dot edu. Be sure to put "IAOC Blog Account" in the subject line and include the email address where you want your login information sent.

Don Dunnington
President - IAOC