Arthur W. Brodeur, the founding editor of the Cornell Chronicle, recalls President Emeritus Dale Corson's crucial role in establishing the campus newspaper. Corson, Cornell's eighth president (1969-77) and a distinguished physicist and engineer, died March 31. A memorial service to honor his life will be held Sept. 8 at 10:30 a.m. in Sage Chapel.

The confluence of the Cornell Chronicle beginning its 43rd year and the memorial service Sept. 8 for President Emeritus Dale R. Corson should remind us that without Dale there would be no Cornell Chronicle.

The launch of the Chronicle Sept. 25, 1969, was a result of Dale implementing recommendations of the Report of the Special Trustee Committee on Campus Unrest at Cornell. Following the events of April 19, 1969, Board Chairman Robert W. Purcell established the committee and charged it with investigating the seizure of Willard Straight Hall and all surrounding circumstances along with the "complex of issues" raised during that time.

The report was delivered to the board Sept. 5, 1969. It laid out the chronology of events from Friday morning, April 18, through Wednesday afternoon, April 23, 1969 -- a period whose intensity and impact on the future of a great university will be forever etched in the memory and psyche of those of us who lived through it -- and went on to make recommendations.

The committee reported that it had "constantly encountered the need for 'better communication' among all elements in the Cornell community." And among the principles upon which it predicated its recommendations was that "communications effectiveness starts with the conviction on the part of leadership from top to bottom that good information management is crucial to the achievement of the university's goals."

Here is where Dale comes in.

Over the summer, after having been appointed acting president in the aftermath of the April events, Dale worked diligently to bring the same calm and civility which were hallmarks of his personality to the campus and the community. Come September, with the "acting" removed, the pace quickened as he strove to lead and to implement the changes recommended by the trustee report, among them the establishment of a campus newspaper, the Cornell Chronicle, whose purpose was to "provide official information, important to its readers as members of the university, but not readily available through existing communications channels." In fact, in its first issue, the Chronicle carried his first major address, a Sept. 14 speech to the Cornell Constituent Assembly in its entirety.

The Cornell Chronicle was to be "the official weekly of record for Cornell University," and I was to be its first editor. On page one of the first issue, I wrote that "The Chronicle is an experimental venture at this stage." That is a gross editorial understatement.

We knew we were pioneers; there were only two other such newspapers in existence, the Harvard Gazette and the McGill Reporter in Canada. Today most colleges and universities have newspapers, online or print, and the Chronicle still thrives and is still dedicated to the communications principles and university goals that were the foundation of its creation. We struggled at first, with layout and with distribution. But we were professionally and personally exhilarated, and behind us with support, encouragement and counsel was Dale Corson.

I was there when he assumed the presidency, and I was there when he stepped down. In between, I served for many years as his speechwriter and public affairs counsel. We exchanged many words and in those eight-some years; not one of those words was harsh.

In early 1978, I left Cornell to take a university vice presidency in Boston, and at my going-away reception in the Big Red Barn, Dale handed me a speech to read. It was a speech done in the style we had developed over the years, with a message, a bit of humor and literary allusions.

But this one was different, it was a speech to be delivered by me; he had written it. It was a darn good speech. He later told University Archivist Gould Colman that he had written it for "a colleague and a friend."

Being called his colleague and friend remains the finest encomium of my professional life. In my some 40 years in university administration, I sat at the right hand of nearly a dozen university presidents and numerous provosts or chancellors-soon-to-be presidents, but none, in my estimation, will ever equal Dale Raymond Corson.