A Huge “Plane Tree”: Prof. Dr. Donald Shaw

Maybe there is someone in every person's life: someone who reaches out to him, guides him, opens doors, makes him reach from one place to another, and offers him an unexpected favor in an unexpected moment.

How lucky I am that I can mention a few names in my life as well…

Donald Shaw was one of them…

I do not know how to start: I think it will take some time to collect the memories in my mind...

We met via e-mail in the early 2000s, the great theorist, one of the name-fathers’ of agenda setting theory, with Prof. Dr. Donald Shaw…

Then, together with my PhD thesis advisor Prof. Dr. Uğur Demiray and Prof. Merter Oral, we took my esteemed professors Prof. Dr. Maxwell McCombs, Prof. Dr. Donald Shaw and Prof. Dr. Judith Litterst from the airport, and we traveled about 2000 kilometers between Istanbul, Eskişehir, Konya, Akşehir, Nevşehir, Ürgüp, and Cappadocia…


Prof. Shaw was in Prof. Demiray’s car, because he was smoking, and Judith Litterst was with them; I, a young academician, in my own car with Prof. Oral and Prof. McCombs…

Maybe it was one of the best trips of our lives…

I saw that our teacher Shaw meticulously examined historical places and artifacts…

By the way, may God have mercy on my professor Demiray and my professor Merter again...

They also passed away…






Then, I went to United States as visiting professor with the invitation from Prof. Dr. McCombs…

The year was 2002…

Prof. Dr. Donald Shaw hosted us in Chappel Hill together with my dear friend Prof. Dr. Serra Görpe who was a visiting scholar like me with the invitation from Prof. Dr. McCombs. He got behind the wheel, drove for hours and took us to the ocean shore. We put our feet in the sea, ate fish together... It was a different fish, from what we do not eat here…



Then (perhaps before) one day, Prof. Dr. Shaw came to the University of Texas, Austin to visit…

I told him about my study... There was also an article I wanted to finish…

First, we got out and went to a big hall… There was one of the biggest and longest tables I've ever seen in my life. A massive, magnificent, long, historical table and its armchairs, which I think are so historical and precious...

Prof. Shaw laid the pages of my article side by side on the table… Then he took a 50 cm metal/plastic ruler in his hand… He started to cut paragraph by paragraph with a ruler…

On the one hand, he was asking questions, and on the other hand, he was pasting the paragraphs he had cut with tape, one after the other. It was as if we were playing a puzzle. He pasted it there, this here, my professor... By describing, what he did…

He showed practically how an article should be edited…






Together with Prof. Dr. Maxwell McCombs and Prof. Dr. Serra Görpe, we started the "International Symposium: Communication in the Millennium" meetings, which will be held for the 18th time this year. One year in America, one year in Turkey…

Many of my colleagues, my friends, received a visa to the United States for the first time in their lives, as I did before, and made an academic presentation in English for the first time in their lives due to this symposium organization.

This symposium has been a great experience, a great educational platform, a great career step for hundreds of academicians during last 18-19 years…






Our conversations with Prof. Dr. Shaw continued on many occasions…

In Eskişehir, Istanbul, in different cities of America…

More so, we “mailed”…




While visiting Hamamyolu in Eskişehir, I remember almost 20 years ago, he said, "Like 30 years ago … in Amerika…"



This morning, as you can imagine, I received the sad news...

Next week, we will hold the 18th edition of Communication in the Millennium in Erzurum. This year, the host is Atatürk University Faculty of Communication…

Dean of the Faculty Prof. Dr. Adam Yılmaz…

Organizing Committee President, Assoc. Dr. Besim Yıldırım...

Both of them are among the first students I taught while I was a research assistant at the Faculty of Communication at Selçuk University in Konya.

The important names of the CIM symposium organization, and my dear friends…



His son, Matt Shaw, wrote on Facebook when I woke up this morning:

“My dad, Donald Shaw, died tonight, Oct. 19, after several weeks of illness and five days in hospice care. My sister Dona and I were with him. He was less than a week from his 85th birthday.

He had been asleep most of the day today. A friend had suggested I play a hymn called "On Eagles' Wings" since Dad liked eagles. I found a version by Michael Crawford, which we played. That prompted me to put on the original soundtrack to "Phantom of the Opera," which had starred Crawford. Dad had loved that show and would play the CD over and over in his car on trips. Dad's eyes slightly opened when "Think of Me" started, I felt like he recognized me, his breathing seemed to change.

We were enjoying the music and had listened to almost all of Act I when Dad grew very still during "All I Ask of You" and he then was gone. I feel like the music and our presence in the room helped him pass over….”



Rest in peace…

Condolences to his loved ones...

Maybe they met with Prof. Demiray and Prof. Oral, and now they watch us…

Greetings to them...