WASHINGTON — As friends and loved ones prepare to remember Robert Hiaasen at a memorial service Monday night, there are eight who will remember him with a different title.
Not “columnist” or “editor,” but “professor.”
“He provided us with all of his advice,” said Kelly Zheng, a senior at the University of Maryland who took his news writing and reporting class in last spring. “He was just a great person.”
The columnist and assistant editor at the Capital Gazette was among the five killed in Thursday’s mass shooting at the newsroom.
The intimate spring class was his first and only class at the school. He taught his students to show the reader why they should care through their writing, shining a light on the unsung heroes of everyday life.
Hiaasen encouraged his students to jump in and contribute in discussions about current events and newsroom ethics.
“He was my class’ journalism dad and all eight of us were his kids in the classroom,” Teresa Johnson, another one of the students, wrote in an email.
The course was built to simulate a real-life newsroom for the aspiring journalists. Hiaasen tasked them with writing two articles each week.
But it was moments that weren’t related to reporting that stuck with his students the most.
“He was always there to listen,” Zheng said. “There was one night where I just broke down, and he stayed after class to listen. We had a pretty deep conversation about how even if we’re not on the right path you’ll always find your way.”
“I had been struggling with just life dilemmas, and he was there to encourage me to just finish strong with the class, no matter how intense it was. And then he shared how it was his first time teaching, so he was nervous about the whole situation … but in the end he did it, he accomplished his goal of teaching, and he was excited to teach his next class,” Zheng said.
Johnson will cherish similar memories.
“Sometimes when he sensed that I wasn’t feeling the greatest he purposely didn’t pick me to tell him about something that may have been happening in the news at the beginning of class because I surely didn’t read the news and it was clear that I wasn’t in the best mindset,” Johnson wrote.
“But then he would express concern at the end of class because he wanted to know that I was going to be OK. He cared so much and it was in a soft, gentle, kind way that made you want to slowly open up to him about your life.”
Both Zheng and Johnson loved how Hiaasen referred to their class as his “crew.”
Whether he was emailing students interesting articles or making fun of his old keyboard-sporting cellphone (he never did upgrade to that smartphone he kept telling the class he’d get), Hiaasen helped build a closeness and intimacy among the students.
That closeness is now helping the students get through this tragedy.
“We’re checking on each other,” Zheng said. The class plans on writing letters to Hiaasen’s family about the impact he had on each of them.
“I’m just so glad that I took the chance with this ‘new’ professor,” said Zheng. “It was an honor to be in his class. His first and only class.”
