The former faculty member and alum is thinking of the Hubbard School when planning his financial future.
David Therkelsen first set foot in Murphy Hall in the spring of 1966. The last time he was inside Murphy Hall was spring of 2024. That’s a 58-year relationship. Therkelsen is many things to the School—in fact, former director Al Tims called him an “utility infielder”—an alum, an adjunct who taught undergraduate and graduate courses, an interim director, a contributor to the rigor of the public relations track curriculum, a mentor, and more.
During and after his collegiate career and prior to arriving at the school in a professional capacity, he logged three years as a working journalist with the local weekly Sun newspapers.
“All through my undergrad, I worked full time as a reporter and editor,” he said of the more traditionally nonlinear student path of the era. “It was the greatest meritocracy I ever worked at. They didn’t care if you had a degree or what it was in, if you were 22. If you showed you could do something, they let you do it. If that’s your job while you’re also working on a journalism degree, there’s such synergy. I could turn my work stories into class assignments; it was a really wonderful job to have. And I thought it would be my career. But it was three very valuable years of a 47-year career.”
But with his wife, Linda (also an alum!), and a growing family, Therkelsen said he left the work he loved behind and took a public relations job with very little training. But it suited him, and he worked himself all the way up to executive and CEO positions with the Regional Transit Authority and then with the American Red Cross.
In l996, Therkelsen saw Hubbard School Professor Dan Wackman at a Padilla event and suggested he might like to teach someday when he had more time. “Dan said, ‘When, exactly, Dave, will you have more time?’ I took his point immediately, and started the work to pick up adjunct teaching.” He said he particularly enjoyed teaching Public Relations Writing and Tactics, which he describes as the “boot camp course for PR students.” He said to this day, former students tell him it was one of the toughest and most demanding courses, with the highest grading standards in the School.
Combining the real-world career advice with the books suited him. “If you get that blend right, it’s powerful,” he said.
He also served as the interim director of the Professional Master’s in Strategic Communication program while the School searched for a new one, and served as the board president of the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA)—a real full-circle moment, as he met Linda at an NSPA event in high school. He also put in his time as PRSSA advisor, especially valuable to students since he had once been the PRSA president himself.
Therkelsen said he keeps saying yes because, “I loved being on a Division I major urban campus every single day. I loved that life. I’ve published in scholarly journals, I’ve written a book. Being in an environment about learning and scholarship and beauty and stimulating things going on—elevating the School’s vision of public relations—felt like a real contribution.”
Now that Therkelsen is mostly retired, and his family and children are prepared financially, he and Linda thought it was time to plan their estate and make some bequests. Those two went to the Hubbard School and the American Red Cross. “It’s an opportunity to make a gift of some size without having to do anything more difficult than dying someday,” he said.
Why the Hubbard School? “A journalism degree equips you for a lot of roles,” he said. “You learn to communicate well, learn to think critically. You develop healthy skepticism. These are qualities that make a good leader, a good executive. Being fully aware of the state of journalism in this society right now, I still don’t think it would ever be a mistake to earn a journalism degree because it will underscore your success in almost any field.”
And, he said, despite so much evidence to the contrary, he still maintains a sense of optimism. “My optimism is in the students themselves,” he said. “I taught more than 1,000 students. Not only did they have communication and writing talent, but the thinking capability was almost uniformly there. When you see that in student after student, it does reinforce your hope that some will do important things, and most will be good citizens and thoughtful professionals.”
Written by Katie Dohman
