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Member Snapshot: Stuart Chilton '50By Meg Cullar
Photograph by Rod Aydelotte
Stuart Chilton '50 has led a double life. After a distinguished career
in higher education administration, he still considers himself just as
much of a journalist as an educator. "I've loved journalism since the
fourth grade, when I would put out my own little newspaper, printing it
by hand with a pencil," he said. "I knew then I wanted to major in what
I called 'newspapering.'"
 When
Chilton graduated from Baylor, his ultimate ambition was to become the
director of public information at a college or university. He attained
that goal in four years, after a few years in "newspapering" and
teaching high school. When he was offered a promotion at Tarleton State
to become registrar and dean of students, he decided to move on to
something new—and more lucrative.
"I loved working with the students and helping them," Chilton said of
his years in educational administration. "A student would come in who
needed financial assistance, and maybe I could help them find a
scholarship or a job. Some of those students come back, even recently,
to thank me, and it just brings tears to my eyes."
Chilton spent nearly ten years at Tarleton before taking a position in
1966 at East Texas State University (now Texas A&M Commerce), where
he taught and served in the administration for thirty-four years.
Throughout that time, Chilton continued to write for newspapers. While
in Commerce, he authored a weekly column, called Commerce Corner, for the local paper and also sent freelance stories to the Houston Chronicle.
Upon retiring to Stephenville to be near his son, Chilton wrote a weekly column for the Stephenville Empire-Tribune
for a number of years, only giving it up to care for his wife, Ann, who
died in 2004. Now he continues to write occasionally as a special
contributor to the paper.
Chilton is also known in Baylor circles as the organizer of the
J-Blurbers, a group of journalism graduates from the late 1940s and
early 1950s. Attendance at the group's reunions peaked in 1999, when
about sixty came for Homecoming. "Father Time has caught up with us
now," Chilton noted. "Some are gone, and some aren't able to travel."
But still they get together to remember—and continue—their shared love
of "newspapering."
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