My Grandad

Sad news. My grandad passed away yesterday morning very unexpectedly. There are several stories already in the papers about it and I am posting them here as I come across them. The AP Report has his age wrong (81, not 82) and says he died of fluid on the heart which is wrong. He had been having trouble regulating his blood pressure and blood sugar and passed away in his sleep at Athens Regional yesterday morning (with the TV on, of course).

Here is a combo of a couple of the obits compiled with snippets from an auto-bio he wrote for something:

Worth McDougald, the man who oversaw the prestigious Peabody Awards program for nearly 30 years and known to thousands of students and journalists as “Dr. Mac,”, died Thursday morning at Athens Regional Medical Center. He was 81.

He was a native of Statesboro (GA) and was educated in the public schools there, being graduated from Statesboro High in 1942. (Chip adds here : actually from Clito, not Statesboro)

McDougald came to UGA in 1949 as an associate professor in what was then the Henry W. Grady School of Journalism, and served as director of the Peabody Awards program from 1963 until he stepped down from that post in 1991.

“Worth McDougald is a giant of 20th century UGA history,” said UGA president Michael F. Adams. “He laid the foundation for what has become the most prized honor in broadcasting, the Peabody Awards. His focus on quality as the guiding criterion informs the selection process even today. As great as his impact on the broadcast industry has been, his impact on students and colleagues in the Grady College may have been even greater. For 42 years he served this university with dignity, dedication and humor, and we will miss him very much.”

In World War II, McDougald served in the United States Navy in the Pacific Theater.
He entered both Hiroshima and Nagasaki within a few weeks after the atomic bombs destroyed those cities. In 1946 the Appalachian served as Press Ship for both the air and underwater explosions of atomic weapons at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.

Upon leaving the service, he completed his degree requirements at Emory University in 1947. He joined the staff of radio station WWNS in Statesboro, Ga., as program and news director and, from there, was recruited to the University of Georgia by John Drewery in 1949. In 1951, McDougald was recalled to active duty with the Navy and served during the Korean War, attaining the rank of Lt. Commander. After returning to the university, he received a master of arts in political science from UGA in 1954 and a Ph. D. from Ohio State University in 1964.

McDougald retired from the UGA journalism school in 1992, the same year he was named Georgia’s Broadcast Citizen of the Year and inducted into the Georgia Broadcasting Hall of Fame.

During his tenure as director of the Peabody Awards, McDougald saved and protected the program’s collection – nearly all the broadcast entries and documents submitted for judging from 1940 to 1991 – and he had them moved into a permanent location at the UGA Main Library, said retired UGA journalism professor John English.

“To his credit he maintained the collection, kept it protected and finally got it to the library,” English said. “Now it’s this national treasure that we have and one of a few such broadcasting collections in the country.”

Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at Central Presbyterian Church, 380 Alps Road. Bernstein Funeral Home has charge of arrangements.

The visitation is tonight (Friday) from 6 to 8 at Bernstein’s.