Robert Griffin

I was a “chairborne paragraph trooper” in the U.S. Air Force. I became an Air Force information specialist in 1969 just before the Vietnam War draft. I just graduated with a journalism degree and wanted to be an environmental reporter. But, like other young men of draft age in those times, I had to make a tough choice and the Air Force offered me a chance to develop my skills. I was fortunate. I eventually became the base newspaper editor at Grand Forks AFB, ND. “The Leader” earned various awards, and I received the U.S. Air Force Commendation Medal for meritorious service. The Air Force granted me six months early release from active duty in late 1972 so I could start graduate studies at UW-Madison. My experience at UW was a positive turning point for me. I got my Master’s and Ph.D. degrees and shifted my career from professional journalism to academia and research. (Some quipped I was “seduced by the dark side of the Force.”) Meanwhile I also taught mass communication at the UW Center System campus in Janesville for five years. That’s where I discovered my passion for teaching. I started fulltime as a journalism and mass communication professor at Marquette University in 1978, retired as full professor emeritus after forty years service, and received a university-wide award for teaching excellence. My long-term research interests in risk and environmental communication resulted in my being elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Society for Risk Analysis.