Prior to working as an introductory mass communication instructor, Freda Dunne worked for The Advocate for 40 years. After her retirement on Sept. 20, 2013 — coincidentally the same date as her wedding anniversary — she dedicated the next three months to sleeping. Working for The Advocate for 40 years cost Dunne countless hours of rest, so the next three months were recoup time.
“I’d wake up and look at the ceiling, and I’d watch the fan going around and around,” Dunne said. “I’d say ‘Nope, I don’t have to get up,’ and roll back over. After that, I played for six months.”
After six months of traveling and playing around, Dunne felt the next 30 years couldn’t just be playtime. Not long after that, Manship School Assistant Dean Andrea Miller sent her an email asking if she’d be interested in teaching a class.
“What I discovered is that when you are a journalist for so long, you have a finger memory for why you do things,” Dunne said. “You don’t know how to explain why you did things, especially if you’re standing in front of a bunch of students.”
Dunne teaches MC 2010, an introductory AP style writing class. She structures it in a way anyone can understand because she realizes her students aren’t all experienced writers. She had a breakthrough with one student in particular when she didn’t grade the class’s papers.
“I walked into class and said, ‘I am so sorry, but I did not grade your papers,’” she said. “I had a choice to either grade the papers or go out, and I thought, ‘I’m 64, I’m going out.’”
The class sat in shock after realizing that Dunne was no different than them.
She said she always makes a point to say she was a B-student and constantly in trouble until she joined Tiger Band when she was a University student. She attributes her cleaned-up act to the regimented schedule.
Dunne makes a seemingly boring class more exciting with tales of her life and by making her students write her obituary. The obituary assignment is one of her trademarks, and students can be as creative as they choose.
She always informs students of her love of science, but also of how she and science could never be compatible.
“There was a point where I wanted to be a geologist or archeologist, and I still have that Indiana Jones thing in the back of my mind,” said Dunne. “But it’s the math. I am not math. Math and I do not get along, and we divorced a long time ago.”
Math and science go hand-in-hand, so it would appear as though Dunne chose the perfect career. Throughout her illustrious career, she’s had the opportunity to meet some famous characters.
“Sometimes I would interview people that were famous, but I didn’t know because I was slightly stupid at times and wasn’t paying attention,” she said.
Thirty minutes passed before Dunne realized she was speaking and having tea with Karl Wallenda of The Flying Wallendas.
Dunne chose stories based on interest, and many of those were features on individuals because of her interest in what makes people tick.
“That’s what drives me: figuring out what makes people tick,” Dunne said.
Her late husband Mike was also a journalist, and they both won national awards in the same year. It was probably a good thing because no one ended up jealous, she said.
“What I discovered is that nobody understands you like another journalist,” Dunne said. “My brothers never understood me, [but] my mother came to understand because she always wanted to be a journalist.”
Dunne and her husband worked together at The Advocate, but they agreed not to speak about the topics of their stories at home. Dunne was better at editing, so she’d edit his stories. Mike was better at the investigation, so he would advise Dunne on what questions she should ask next.
In their spare reading time, they’d look for really good sentences.
“We love finding words that sing, and we’d read them out loud,” said Dunne. “The kids were thinking ‘Wow, Mom and Dad are nuts,’ but now they do it.”
Dunne’s advice for college students is to find a career they’re comfortable with because time on Earth is too limited to be doing something that isn’t worthwhile. As for journalists, she urges them to be accurate.
Recently, Steve Buttry, the Manship School’s Director of Student Media, passed away from pancreatic cancer. Dunne deeply admired Buttry and his work.
“I don’t know anyone [in] this business who knew as much as Steve Buttry and who shared it as openly as that man,” Dunne said. “He was always writing and going places, and I could not squeeze that much into my day if I tried. Between Steve and Mike, I guess I’m on my own now.”
Though Dunne has suffered death and disaster, her positive outlook still shines through. It isn’t really about the times you fall, but rather how many times you get back up.
“I smile a lot now, and there were a few years after Mike died that it took a while to smile,” she said. “Now I feel good, and that’s good.”

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Kelly McDuff

University professor Freda Dunne talks to her students in her media writing class on Monday, March 6, 2017, in Hodges Hall.