Hallie J. Hamilton came to NIU in 1958 before there was a journalism major to be found.

A World War II veteran, Hallie had worked at summer camps, in a steel mill, and as a waiter, a bartender, a service station attendant, a door-to-door salesman and even a farmer. He also logged time in free-lance writing and photography, and spent the seven years prior to his arrival in DeKalb in public relations.

But teaching was his true love. As the creator and nurturer of NIU’s photojournalism program, Hallie opened the eyes of countless students to photography. Many of those, of course, found work at the Star — where Hallie served as adviser during summers and when adviser Roy Campbell was on sabattical.

“I always thought the kids did an excellent job when you left them alone,” Hallie says. “In the beginning it was pretty tough. We spent a lot of time in the president’s office defending freedom of the press. It was a new thing to them.”

Students remember Hallie as a mentor and friend.

“Hallie brought much more to the classroom than camera mechanics and darkroom techniques,” said Thomas A. Wartowski, a 1971 alum who changed his major from psychology to journalism after meeting Hallie. “Looking through the viewfinder, Hallie showed his students how to see life from new perspectives and opened up their horizons.”

Born in 1924 in Bridgeport, Ill., Hallie earned a journalism degree from Franklin College in Indiana. He completed his master’s in journalism at Northwestern University. Eventially, he earned his doctorate in 1968 from Indiana University.

Hallie’s first job at NIU was in Regional Services, where he was supervisor of student and sports publicity. In 1961, he joined the Journalism Department as an instructor and became renowned for his photojournalism classes. He also taught courses without cameras, including advertising copywriting, article writing, industrial editing, layout and even press problems. In 1971, he won NIU’s Excellence in Teaching Award.

“Hallie does not teach just photojournalism, or even just journalism,” former journalism chairman Don Brod wrote in 1977. “He teaches an attitude, a feeling of responsibility, a love of learning.”

Hallie retired from NIU in 1991 and now spends the cold months in Gulf Shores, Ala., with his wife, Floann.