COLLEGE PARK (12/15/20) -- Professor Kevin Klose, former dean at the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism, announced he will retire at the end of the Fall 2020 semester.
Klose, 80, has taught at Merrill College since serving as dean from 2009 to 2012. He taught journalism as literature, ethics and leadership courses for Merrill College and for the university’s honors program.
“It’s been extremely rewarding to be part of a college that’s moving so rapidly to the forefront of American journalism education,” Klose said. “Merrill competes for and attracts very bright, very motivated journalism students, who want to be a part of this rapidly changing industry. It was a pleasure to teach them during my time in College Park.”
“I thank Kevin for his thoughtful advice, gracious demeanor and insight into the job of a dean -- something only a dean can understand,” Merrill College Dean Lucy A. Dalglish said. “We were so fortunate to have him here to impart his wealth of journalism knowledge to our students.”
Klose came to College Park after a remarkable journalism career. He was president of NPR from 1998 to 2008 and was president emeritus immediately before being hired by Merrill College.
Klose also served two separate tours as president and CEO of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Munich and Prague, and 25 years as an editor and reporter at The Washington Post. He was The Post’s Moscow bureau chief 1977-81.
Before joining NPR, Klose served successively as director of U.S. international broadcasting, overseeing the U.S. government’s global radio and television news services (1997-98) and president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), broadcasting to Central Europe and the former Soviet Union (1994-97). He joined RFE/RL in 1992 as director of Radio Liberty, broadcasting to the former Soviet Union in its national languages. Among his achievements, he relocated RFE/RL from Munich to Prague and helped devise and implement a strategy to refocus the mission of all U.S.-funded international broadcasting and update operations.
“Kevin has dedicated his career to the craft of journalism and to showing just how much the profession matters to democracy, both in America and around the world,” Merrill Professor and Senior Scholar Sarah Oates said. “He's an amazing inspiration to his colleagues, to journalists and to our students.”
Klose received a B.A., cum laude, from Harvard University. A former Woodrow Wilson National Fellow, he is the author of “Russia and the Russians: Inside the Closed Society,” the winner of the Overseas Press Club of America’s Cornelius Ryan Award. He is coauthor of four other books. Klose served two years active duty as a deck officer aboard a destroyer in the U.S. Pacific Fleet from 1962-64.
Asked about his plans for retirement, Klose said, "I'm looking forward to returning to the outline of a book I started years ago, and to spending more time with my wife, Deborah, and our large family."
For more information, contact:
Josh Land
joshland@umd.edu
301-405-1321