Atwood Foundation to give $1 million to UAA

The Atwood Foundation, the great civic legacy of Robert and Evangeline Rasmuson Atwood, has pledged to give the University of Alaska Anchorage's Department of Journalism and Public Communications $1 million toward endowment of the Atwood Chair of Journalism.

The gift will be spread over a five-year period with annual payments of $200,000. The first check was given to UAA Chancellor Fran Ulmer last week.

The Atwood Chair of Journalism was created in 1980 as a beneficiary of the Atwood family. Bob Atwood was then and had been since 1935 the publisher and editor of The Anchorage Times, which remained the largest newspaper in Alaska for decades and is often credited with applying the most muscle to the effort in the 1950s and before to make Alaska a state.

Through the Atwood Foundation, created in 1962, Bob Atwood funded the Atwood Chair with yearly donations to further the cause of educating the next generation of Alaska reporters and editors.

Click here to read the full news release.