COLUMBIA - Joseph William Shoquist, 84, retired newspaper editor and educator, died Saturday, February 27, 2010.
Mr. Shoquist and his wife, Dorothy, had lived in Jackson Hole, Wyo. since 1991 and spent their winters in Columbia. He was a former dean of the School of Journalism at the University of South Carolina. Prior to that, he had been managing editor of the Milwaukee Journal for more than 18 years.
Except for five years as journalism dean and professor at South Carolina prior to his retirement in 1991, and one year as a journalism instructor early in his career at the University of Montana, he spent his working life as a newspaperman. In the course of his career as a journalist, he was a reporter, sports editor, copy editor, columnist, photographer, occasionally a foreign correspondent, and an editor in a variety of roles.
Mr. Shoquist was born November 30, 1925, in Lone Tree Iowa, a farming village of 650 persons. His father, Walter E. Shoquist, the son of Swedish immigrants, owned a general store that sold groceries and dry goods. His mother, Bertha McCurdy Shoquist, taught school for a total of 45 years, mostly in one-room country schoolhouses. These one-teacher country schools provided education for children in grades one through eight. She retired in the 1970s when the state of Iowa closed the last of the one-room schools.
Mr. Shoquist received his elementary and high school education in the Lone Tree public schools. His family moved to nearby Iowa City in 1943 and he entered the University of Iowa there. His college education was interrupted for a year of service in the Army in World War II and he was graduated from Iowa in 1948 with a degree in journalism.
He began his journalism career as a sports writer for the Boise Idaho Statesman. He then moved to Idaho Falls as sports editor of the Post-Register. It was in Idaho Falls that he met Dorothy Lee Ormond, who later would become his wife. He returned to Iowa City in 1950 and obtained a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Iowa in 1951. He and Dorothy were married on June 30, 1951, in her hometown of Rigby and they moved to Missoula, Mont., where he taught journalism and she did a year of graduate study at the University of Montana.
In 1952, they moved to Great Falls, Mont., where he worked as a reporter and copy editor for the Great Falls Tribune and she taught home economics at nearby Cascade High School. The couple moved to Milwaukee in 1954 where he worked for the Milwaukee Sentinel and she taught in a Milwaukee high school. They lived in Milwaukee for 32 years and their two children were born and reared there.
In 1955, Mr. Shoquist joined the Milwaukee Journal as a copy editor. He subsequently served the newspaper as national editor, news editor and assistant managing editor, and in 1967, he was named managing editor. In that job he was responsible for the news and feature operations of the daily and Sunday Journal.
He was active in the Associated Press Managing Editors Association, a national organization of newspaper editors. He did pioneering work in the area of newspaper ethics and in 1974 he headed a committee that developed APME’s first code of ethics. Recognized nationally as an authority on media ethics, he lectured frequently on the subject. For several years, he also conducted seminars for newspaper personnel on ethics and other subjects at the American Press Institute in Reston, Va.
Mr. Shoquist served as president of the Associated Press Managing Editors Association in 1978-79. While an editor, he became actively involved in working to improve journalism education and for 15 years, he was a member of the agency that accredits schools of journalism in the United States. He served as president of that organization from 1983 to 1986.
He was a founding member of the First Amendment Congress, a national organization that worked to educate the public on the importance of the first amendment to the Constitution. He also was active in the American Society of Newspaper Editors, particularly in the areas of journalism education, ethics and the advancement of racial minorities in American newspapers.
Mr. Shoquist retired from The Journal in 1986 and became dean of journalism at South Carolina. He retired from that job in 1991 and he and his wife moved to Jackson Hole, where they lived part of the year; the rest of the time they lived in South Carolina.
He is survived by his son, Paul Shoquist ; daughter, Sally Shoquist, both of Jackson, WY; sisters, Jean Hughes Wright of Calistoga, CA, Carol Wolford of Shenandoah, IA. He was predeceased by his wife, Dorothy.
A memorial service will be held 2 p.m. Saturday, March 6, 2010 at Rutledge Chapel, University of SC. After cremation, the ashes will be buried in the Rigby, Idaho cemetery.
Dunbar Funeral Home, Devine Street Chapel, is assisting the family.
Memorials may be made to Joseph W. and Dorothy Shoquist Doctoral Fellowship, which he and his wife established in the School of Journalism at the University of SC. The address is Gift Processing/USC, 1600 Hampton St., Columbia, SC 29208, payable to USC Foundation.