C/O Dr. Ed Whetmore
CSUDH
1000 E. Victoria Street
Carson, CA 90747
(310) 243-3822
http://www.csudh.edu/univadv/dateline/facstaffnews/inmemoriam.htm
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In Memoriam: Donn Silvis (1942-2008)
Professor of communications Donn Silvis died last week from an infection complicated by upper respiratory issues on May 31. He was 66. A public relations professional who led his own firm, Silvis Communications for ten years, the Greeley, Colo. native brought extensive professional experience to the classroom and was a fully supportive and engaged mentor to his students, even after they graduated.
Assistant professor of communications Chris Russo (Class of ’91, B.A., communications; ’03, M.A., psychology) says that learning from Silvis’ professional experiences was “absolutely priceless.”
“Hearing Donn’s stories of his day-to-day work in the field made the field of study very real for us,” says Russo. “He was a writer, a strategist, a photographer, an editor, and so much more. It gave us a framework in which we could place the knowledge we were building, and a physical representation of what was possible. He also accomplished this by consistently bringing in various professionals from different categories in the field to inform and inspire us.”
Silvis began his career at CSU Dominguez Hills in 1990, and served as chair of the communications department from 1992-1996. He was advisor to the campus chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America and in 1993, was named Outstanding Faculty Advisor for the South Pacific district. In 2006, he received the Lyle E. Gibson Distinguished Teacher Award. Another former student, Marcus Vincent, submitted a nomination letter for his former professor.
“The real benchmark of Professor Silvis’ success as an instructor can be best measured by one undeniable statistic – the success of his students,” Vincent wrote.
The evaluator in the CSUDH Office of Admissions and Records recalls now how “even in a personal moment of triumph and recognition, his thoughts and concerns were and always have been about the well-being of his students. [When he] contacted me to tell me he was awarded the Distinguished Teacher Award, I congratulated him [and] conveyed my disbelief that he hadn’t won the Outstanding Professor Award as well. He first expressed his deep appreciation for ‘being recognized for doing what I so enjoy.’ He also noted, ‘The Lyle Gibson award means more to me since the focus is on teaching and students.’”
Russo, who went on to a successful career in public relations with firms such as Saatchi and Saatchi before returning to his alma mater to teach, says, “Donn did indeed continue to mentor so many of us after graduation, which again proved invaluable for us in building our careers, characters and personal lives. Knowing that he was always available for advice before a big interview, or to bounce thoughts of a new job or opportunity, made those first few difficult years in the industry much easier and significantly more fruitful for so many of us.”
After graduating with his bachelor’s degree in journalism from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo in 1965, Silvis enlisted in the Army the day before his draft notice appeared in the mail. He served for 13 months as a battalion adjutant for an artillery unit during the Vietnam War, rising to captain and receiving a Commendation Medal.
Upon his discharge from the Army, Silvis began his communications career as a one-man corporate communications staff for Norris Industries for an array of internal and external publications. He then spent ten years as assistant vice president and the director of marketing communications for Avco Financial Services before starting his own company, Silvis Communications in Cerritos, Calif., serving clients such as Avery-Dennison and ARCO.
Throughout his professional career, Silvis taught journalism, public relations, and corporate communications courses at CSU Los Angeles, CSU Fullerton, the University of Southern California, the University of California, Irvine and his alma mater of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He earned his master’s degree in mass communications from CSU Fullerton in 1988.
His numerous writings and publications include the co-authored Public Relations Writing: Strategies and Skills (1991) and Inside Organizational Communications (1981, 2nd ed.1985). He served on the board of directors of the International Association of Business Communicators, as well as president of chapters in Los Angeles (1975) and Orange County (1979). He also served on the board of directors of the Orange County chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. Silvis was also a member of Sigma Delta Chi, the Publicity Club of Los Angeles, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, and the Volunteer Center of South Orange County.
Russo, who has been discussing with other communications alumni the possibility of a monument or tribute for their former professor, says, “The truth is, in the end, and I speak for so many of us that were profoundly influenced by this unique and remarkable man. Donn had an uncanny knack not for giving you solutions, but for helping you find the solution that was best for you. He was always there to celebrate our successes and help analyze our mistakes so that we could fix them. It is our careers, our self-confidence, our accomplishments, our belief that we can make the world a better place, our families and our characters that are unmistakably Donn’s living and eternal memorial.”
Silvis is survived by his wife Sharon Silvis, son Donn Bradley Silvis, and three grandchildren.
Services will be held in the Memorial Chapel at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier at 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 7. In lieu of flowers, the family is asking for contributions to a scholarship fund in Silvis’ name that the CSUDH Communications Department is in the process of arranging.
For details, contact Edd Whetmore, professor and chair of communications at (310) 243-3822 or by email at ewhetmore@csudh.edu.
- Joanie Harmon
6/13/08
Past PRSSA President Fall 2007 Tim Trevathan's Dedication:
You All,
I’m sure you all heard at Prof. Silvis’s memorial service the same things I heard. This man was a ‘giver’ and truly cared about people that was the ‘fabric’ he was formed from. Often when we talk about our relationship with or about other people the story shifts from ‘them’ to ‘us’. Prof. Silvis was never that way, it was always about ‘you’ – not ‘him’. He had nothing to prove to himself or others anymore – he knew who he was and his confidence exuded and shone in that arena.
I am going to make a self-serving comment here. My favorite thing about Prof. Silvis was his ability to see in a person what had not developed yet, what was needed to arrive there and the right amount of pressure, guidance and sensitivity to achieve that goal. I shared my resume with him early-on and told him of my intentions to be a librarian and that I would ‘never’ use my Public Relations and communications degree. I was wrong again. He just looked at me knowingly and said “But that isn’t going to prevent you from doing and being the BEST YOU can BE at EVERYTHING YOU DO – RIGHT?” Kind of hard to refute that kind of simple logic without looking like an idiot.
Something about this man told me he was a serious ‘player’ in life. I did not know of his amazing background and legacy and all of the contributions he made until I received the ‘summary’ of his life at the funeral services. It didn’t shock or surprise me. He was so accepting of ideas and often proclaimed his admiration of concepts, ideas and technology he may not have completely understood, but encouraged the understanding of these ideas by bringing relevant articles on Second Life, Communications trade magazines that show the inter-connects of comunications and Public Relations and how it applied to the world. He was always un-threatened by information and interaction that led to learning and exploring ideas.
Ideas, good or bad, were the domain of learning and that was his strong suit. Although we disagreed at times, there was a ‘safety’ to knowing that you could argue and disagree and not feel threatened that it would affect your grade or there would be reprisal later, to me that spoke of his maturity and confidence again.
There was no ‘winning’ and argument, it was just (as many people said at the service) “OK”. The conclusion to a conversation without finality, power or authority being used presumptively or recklessly. He had an opinion, often a strong opinion, but was not un-movable in his positions. His humility in wanting to think it out, examine your point-of-view, allow for error, especially when he knew you were wrong, you could feel the tangible ‘pit bull’ resistance of his will having to yank his own chain into disciplined obedience to his own structured and obedient will.
I rarely let an issue go un-challenged, He asked “What will you do when you no longer have a ‘forum’ in Grad School ?” Neither of us knew, but both of us knew what he was talking about – He thought the highest ideal in life was to Teach, and he wanted me to consider it, even if I had fought hard on the economic down-sides to doing so many times.
It is just like you …to have dotted every I and crossed every “T” before you left
It is just like you…that you said goodbye every time you left as if it might be your last
It is just like you ….that you would even make your own funeral a place where your family was more concerned about other people’s grief and healing than their own
It is just like you …. That few people truly knew what a great man you were
It was just like you …. To go on suffering in silence, no one knowing how close you were to dying
It is just like you … to leave us in better shape than you found us, whether we liked it or not, OUR best was a reflection of YOUR Best being poured out into us
It is just like you ….that I will never see you dead, you are alive in my mind and heart forever, the one true friend a person could count on to cover their back, it was an honor to serve with you, our battle hard fought and won.
All the things not spoken
A Social Blog/Space is upcoming and students and Alumni will be able to paste pictures, video, poems, memories and community based memorials for Prof. Silvis. A communications/P.R. scholarship is being built.
- For more information fee free to call past PRSSA President Tim Trevathan at: trevathantim@yahoo.com or 310-430-0576. Thank You for your time, support and interest!
Annette,
Sorry about the 'lead time. We were notified on Monday of the memorial/funeral service on Saturday and there is a new team running PRSSA under new adviser Prof. Chris Russo. All of the 'newness' apparently lost some of the 'old. The timing of this happening so close to school getting out and email responsiveness in the summer-time is kind of a 'lag indicator' of how things go.
There is no expiration on giving (in general), I was just using the 'fundable.com' site to test the waters on response before the momentum was lost for people who wanted to contribute to a scholarship fund (since that was what the family requested) in lieu of flowers. You are the first and only person to respond since sending this out a week ago, so my suspicion is that either a large part of Prof. Silvis's students graduated and have not heard (been informed) or they are just receiving word now. Some people provided personal e-mail addresses, some CSUDH campus addresses.
My past experience of using email in the summer times (as new president of PRSSA from Jun07-Jan08) was that e-mail was an ineffective tool and received little or no response. I have not asked anyone to make phone calls and have just begun building a Blog/Site to act as a online social space to give personal memorials and the ability to upload pictures, poems and such to commemorate him.
--- On Mon, 6/16/08, Scheibach, Annette
From: Scheibach, Annette
Subject: RE: Donn Silvis Memorial Scholarship Fund Raiser: https://www.fundable.com/
To: trevathantim@yahoo.com
Cc: ewhetmore@csudh.edu
Date: Monday, June 16, 2008, 11:43 AM
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6/17/08
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From: tim trevathan [mailto:trevathantim@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 10:57 AM
To: Scheibach, Annette
Cc: Ed Whetmore
Subject: RE: (pt. 2)Donn Silvis Memorial Scholarship Fund Raiser: https://www.fundable.com/
Annette,
We have not created a long-term facility to collect money yet. The fundable.com
site does collect a 10% fee for collection services. Thus was just the fastest and most immediate way that I knew of to gauge interest as well as use a facility that was 'quick & easy' prior to setting up a web-site or another type of facility. Feel free to send a check later to Dr. Whetmore, he is acting head of this project and can represent the school in an official manner. Send the money to him at any time. Donn's sudden death was a surprise and shock to all, if he was sufferring, he did so in silence, you would have ever known he was ill but the oxygen tank. Tim.
. In lieu of flowers, the family is asking for contributions to a scholarship fund in Silvis’ name that the CSUDH Communications Department is in the process of arranging.
For details, contact:
- Dr. Edd Whetmore, professor and chair of communications at
- (310) 243-3822 or
- by email at ewhetmore@csudh.edu.
- Joanie Harmon
CSUDH Communications Director
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C/O Dr. Ed Whetmore
CSUDH is located at:
1000 E. Victoria Street
Carson, CA 90747
(310) 243-3822
