Pioneering journalism professor earned respect

As vice dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University in New York City, David Klatell has seen the work of many journalism professors.

"But few had the effect that Phyl Garland had on her students," Klatell recalled, as he described Ms. Garland, who retired in 2004 after 31 years as a faculty member at the school.

Phyllis T. Garland, of Brooklyn, N.Y., a native of McKeesport who had been a contributor to the Pittsburgh Courier and Ebony magazine, died of cancer on Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2006, in New York City. She was 71.

In 1981, Ms. Garland became the first female faculty member to receive tenure at the graduate school. Upon retirement, she was named professor emerita.

Graduate school Dean Nicholas Lemann called Ms. Garland "a major presence in the life of this school for decades" and described her as a "woman of tremendous love, passion, spirit and commitment to all the best things in journalism."

"Hers was a life wonderfully well lived, and that is something for us to bear in mind as we mourn her passing," Lemann said.

Ms. Garland had been residing at Calvary Hospice in Brooklyn.

"Phyl was more of an aunt than a teacher to most of the students who took her classes and even to those students who exhausted her patience," Klatell said.

He said Ms. Garland had a great rapport with her colleagues. "She was as supportive of her colleagues as she was with her students. Phyl was generous with her praise and would often share her ideas with them."

Klatell, who formerly was employed by CBS and ABC and taught at Boston University, praised Ms. Garland's grasp of the arts. "Phyl had an incredible understanding and interest in jazz and all forms of dance," he said.

"I can remember talking about a very talented jazz singer. She told me that she knew him as a boy when she was living in Kansas City and kept up with his career."

Ms. Garland's mother, Hazel Garland, was editor in chief of the Pittsburgh Courier from 1974-77. Her father was a photographer with Carter-DiNardo in McKeesport.

Rod Doss, editor and publisher of the New Pittsburgh Courier, based on the South Side, recalled meeting Ms. Garland when he began his career at the Courier, which at the time was located on Centre Avenue in Uptown.

"Phyllis had such a good reputation as a writer that she was often asked to speak to the journalism classes at Point Park College (now University), when she was working in Pittsburgh," Doss said.

Funeral arrangements were incomplete.