Marjorie Smith Blewett

Bloomington native Marjorie Blewett, BA’48, has been involved in journalism nearly seven decades, mostly at IU or in Bloomington.

She began as a staffer on The Optimist at Bloomington High School. As an IU student, she quickly joined the Indiana Daily Student and became its editor in 1947. She also began working for the six-month-old Bloomington newspaper, the Daily Herald, which later became the Herald-Times.

She worked at newspapers in Bloomington and Lafayette, then worked part-time while she and her husband started a family. In the 1960s, she started working at IU journalism, first as a lecturer, then placement, alumni affairs and administrative work.

Blewett worked with hundreds of students as they sought internships and jobs. Most alumni remember her for her role in the journalism placement office, and her connections with editors and newspapers around the state and country.

She is a key figure in alumni relationships to the school, starting the Newswire alumni magazine in the 1960s. She founded the Journalism Alumni Association and its board in the early 1970s. She helped set up the constitution and financial structure for the IU Alumni Association.

Blewett’s vast knowledge of journalism at IU was an asset as the school planned its 2011 centennial celebration, and she was among the inaugural group of School of Journalism Distinguished Alumni Award honorees that year. She also is a member of the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame.

During her years as placement director, she often saw that some students struggled to take on unpaid internships instead of working summer jobs that helped them financially. After retirement, Blewett established a fund to help a student in an unpaid internship each year.