by Christine Byrne

On Thursday, October 5, 2006, Robert Rucker came to Valley Christian High School to talk to students in the Communications Department. His animated voice and movements, along with his outlook on the current news kept students’ attention. Bob Rucker engaged the audience into his lecture by asking about current events that the students had heard about. Mr. Rucker challenged student’s views about the news by asking the journalists to analyze and formulate their personal viewpoint into words. Rucker also gave his personal analysis of the news and discussed the background and catalyst of many current events.

Bob Rucker is an accomplished television journalist as well as a renowned journalism professor at San Jose State University. Rucker attended Northern Illinois University and received a bachelor degree in Science and a minor in political science. In his senior year, Bob Rucker sent over 300 audition tapes to news stations all over the country. With only six callbacks, he received an anchor position as the nightly sports reporter. From this position, Rucker moved onto a position as the San Francisco bureau correspondent for cable News Network (CNN.) Then, Rucker moved across the country to Philadelphia to follow a position as the Weekend News Anchor and Reporter for KYW-TV. During this time, Rucker was also the New Jersey Bureau Chief, and Group W. Westinghouse National Medical News correspondent. He continued to New York to be the national news producer- reporter for News Week. His broadcasting career ended with a job as the TV reporter and anchor for NBC television affiliate in Des Moines, Iowa. After Rucker’s experience on the field, he went back to the University of Illinois and got his Master of Science in broadcast journalism.

Robert Rucker instilled many of his personal philosophies with the communication students of Valley Christian High School. One of his life quotes is, “Before you shoot off your mouth, make sure your brains are loaded.” To be a trustworthy, reliable journalist, one must always do your homework before you state an opinion or report the news. Mr. Rucker also told the students that being a journalist might cause one to sacrifice a lot, to get to the bottom of a story. Rucker told about a time when he covered a potential power plant meltdown, which would have cost him his life if it had melted down. He described how he was feeling and what it was like to call his family for quite possibly the last time. Mr. Rucker stayed at the power plant to continue covering his story. Although the plant never melted down, he had to make an important decision to finish what he had started.

Robert Rucker has grown as a journalist since his first position as a sports anchor in college. Not only has Mr. Rucker become a familiar face to families across the nation, he has shared his talent with the next generation. One last quote Mr. Rucker said was that everyday, he feels like he has made a difference in someone’s life by reporting the news to the public. His love for journalism, broadcasting, and life exuded through him as he shared journalism tips, interviewing instructions, and life lessons with the young journalists of Valley Christian.

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