Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. Papers

In 1995 Loyola University journalism professor Raymond A. Schroth, S.J., published The American Journey of Eric Sevareid, the culmination of two years of extensive research into the life of the CBS newsman who, for almost five decades, commented on the American experience. During a year-long sabbatical beginning in summer 1993, Fr. Schroth lived at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, where he spent countless hours examining the Eric Sevareid Collection at the Library of Congress. Author's inquiries in the book review sections of the New York Times and the Washington Post yielded responses from friends and colleagues as well as from ordinary fans with memories of Sevareid. Following every lead, Schroth examined the commentator's Norwegian/Upper Midwestern background by visiting North Dakota and Minnesota and contacted and interviewed scores of friends, family members and fellow journalists. The Schroth/Sevareid research papers feature Schroth's correspondence files and the notes (handwritten and typed) from thorough interviews he conducted with Sevareid acquaintances ranging from a childhood sweetheart to CBS luminaries Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather. Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. was graduated from Fordham University in 1955 and joined the Society of Jesus in 1957. Following his ordination to the priesthood in 1967, he earned his Ph.D. in American Thought and Culture at George Washington University. He taught journalism at Fordham, served as Academic Dean at Rockhurst College in Kansas City and the College ofthe Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass, and held the Will and Ariel Durant Chair in the Humanities at St . Peter's College in Jersey City. He was a member of the Loyola Mass Communications faculty and Maroon adviser from 1986 to 1996. He has returned to St. Peter's and is editor of Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education. Previous journalistic contributions include artices and reviews on politics, religion, and literature in Commonweal, America, the National Catholic Reporter, the Los Angeles Times, New York Newsday, the Kansas City Star, the Boston Globe and others. The American Journey of Eric Sevareid, Schroth's fourth book, is available in the stacks and in Special Collections at the J. Edgar and Louise S. Monroe Library at Loyola.

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