Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 3, 1991 TAG: 9103030154
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK LAYMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Mollenhoff, 69, had taught at W&L since 1976. He began his career as a reporter for the Des Moines (Iowa) Register in 1941 and remained with the company until 1976, except for time off for Navy service during World War II, two brief leaves of absence and a short stint as a deputy counsel in the Nixon administration.
Many of his years as an investigative reporter were spent in Washington, D.C., as a correspondent for Cowles Publications, then the parent company of the Des Moines paper.
W&L journalism professor Ron MacDonald said Mollenhoff's arrival in Lexington 15 years ago "called national attention to the university and in particular to our department."
Mollenhoff was idolized by many journalism students at W&L. "Each year, there was a group of students we humorously referred to as `Clark's Clones,' who almost literally sat at his feet," MacDonald said.
"It wasn't just his reputation, though," said Steven Pockrass, a 1987 W&L graduate who is a free-lance writer in Indianapolis, Ind. "He taught you a lot, too."
Mollenhoff, a big man with a booming voice, enjoyed recounting his exploits as an investigative reporter, and he was brutally frank when he talked of the public figures he had butted heads with. MacDonald once noticed a desk in Mollenhoff's classroom on which a student had etched the names of the many public figures the professor had skewered as "g--damned liars."
Fellow reporters occasionally were the objects of Mollenhoff's wrath, too. He argued that journalists sometimes abuse the Freedom of Information Act by making broad, unnecessary requests of government agencies. And he complained that reporters too often allow anonymous sources to make irresponsible charges in stories.
Always, though, Mollenhoff pushed his students to look beyond the obvious - and to be skeptical of government. "When writing a paper for him, you always used the words `waste,' `fraud,' `corruption' and `mismanagement,' " Pockrass recalled.
Mollenhoff's talent wasn't limited to muckraking. He also wrote poetry - traditional, rhyming verse, "not something a poetry professor would consider `real' poetry, I'm sure," MacDonald said. But it impressed Ronald Reagan, who once called Mollenhoff to ask permission to use his poem "Teacher" in a speech.
A book of Mollenhoff's poetry is to be published this fall by Iowa State University Press.
Mollenhoff wrote 11 other books, including critiques of the presidencies of Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and a history of labor racketeering investigations.
Newsday reporter Bob Greene once wrote that Mollenhoff's book "Investigative Reporting" was "in a sense, the autobiography of the finest investigative reporter of our time."
Besides the Pulitzer Prize, Mollenhoff won many awards for investigative reporting, magazine writing and television commentary. Among the stories on labor racketeering that he helped uncover involved Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa. He was inducted into the Society for Professional Journalists' Washington correspondents' Hall of Fame in 1979.
Mollenhoff had battled cancer for many years, but he continued to teach a full course load through the 1990 fall semester. For the past year or so, after his right eye was removed, he wore a patch that made him look quite a bit like Rooster Cogburn, the character John Wayne played in the movie "True Grit."
"We'd call him `Rooster' sometimes, and he'd chuckle," MacDonald said. "He was a real character, one of a kind."
Mollenhoff was born in Burnside, Iowa, and was graduated from Drake University Law School in Des Moines in 1944.
Mollenhoff is survived by his wife, Jane; two children, Sue Mollenhoff Montgomery of Regina, Saskatchewan, and C. Raymond Mollenhoff Jr. of Olney, Md.; and four stepchildren. Burial will be in Lohrville, Iowa, on Thursday. A memorial service will be held at the Lexington Presbyterian Church at 12:15 p.m. Monday. The family requests that donations be sent to the donor's favorite charity.
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by CNB