In Memoriam

Phyllis T. Garland (1935-2006)

Phyllis T. Garland, a professor at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University for over 30 years, succumbed to cancer last month. She was 71 years old.

A native of McKeesport, Pennsylvania, Garland was a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She began her professional career as a reporter for the Pittsburgh Courier. In 1965 she joined the editorial staff of Ebony magazine where she worked for six years. In 1971, Garland left to take a faculty position at the State University of New York at New Paltz. While starting out in a new career in the academic world Garland remained a contributing editor at Ebony for nearly two decades. In 1973 she was appointed to the faculty at the Columbia School of Journalism. She was the first woman and the first African American to be awarded tenure at the school. Garland retired and received professor emerita status in May 2004.

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