Week of Dec. 5, 2024

From the editor’s desk

Reno has lost a shining light. Todd Felts, journalism professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, died suddenly on Thanksgiving at the age of 54. 

I am lucky enough to have worked with Todd for a semester in 2018. He was teaching Journalism 107, a giant introductory class of maybe 80 or 90 students in a huge lecture hall. I was one of a few graduate students who taught the breakout writing labs of 15 or 20 students. I usually sat in on Todd’s lectures so I could triangulate our writing instruction with his content. 

In the pictures that have been posted online over the past week, it looks as if Todd was dear friends with everyone. He was. With his North Carolina accent partially intact, he exuded constant warmth and encouragement. He sincerely wanted to hear everyone’s story. He seemed to start with the assumption that everyone and everything are interesting.

Todd specialized in public relations. I am a dyed-in-the-wool news writer. People in these two industries don’t always see eye to eye. Often, when discussing a point or technique with the giant class of 80 or 90 students, he would address a subject from the point of view of someone writing a press release, an advertisement or a speech for a politician. (He had done all of these things professionally, in addition to TV news reporting.) As the assistant listening from the back of the lecture hall, I had no intention of butting in with my two cents. But, on a somewhat regular basis, Todd would say something like, “This is driving Kris nuts, I know it. She’d look at this more like a reporter.” Without the merest sense of confrontation or provocation, he would volunteer the floor to me for a few minutes, knowing full well I was about to give his students the opposite advice he’d just offered.

If that snapshot of Todd’s incredibly generous listening skills for his students doesn’t do enough to illustrate how wide-eyed and open-hearted his approach to life was, and how much he cared about being a bridge builder, well, how about this? He’s also the only person I’ve ever heard tell me he was both a football player and a college cheerleader.

Take care,

—Kris Vagner, managing editor