A&S Outstanding Former Faculty 1996

 Wallace R. Biggs



For many years, Wallace R. Biggs was the Department of Journalism. He was mentor, advisor, and friend to generations of students who are now the backbone of Wyoming's print media. The associations and contacts he developed around the state still benefit the department. After receiving his master's in literature from Washington University in St. Louis in 1927, Biggs taught English and journalism at five universities, earning a second master's in journalism along the way. He came to UW in 1946 and became head of the Department of Journalism until 1967 when his failing eyesight forced him to stop teaching.

During his tenure at UW, Biggs was advisor to the Branding Iron and the Wyoming Yearbook. He founded the UW chapter of Sigma Delta Chi (the Society for Professional Journalists) and the Wyoming High School Press Association.

Biggs' legacy reaches deep into Wyoming. The publishers and broadcasters in most Wyoming communities have roots tracing back to Biggs' department. Jim Hicks, editor and publisher of the Buffalo Bulletin who graduated in 1957 with a degree in journalism, writes, "There was no individual teacher or professor who had more influence on my life than did Mr. Biggs." Biggs died in 1987.