Friend of IC John Babcock: ‘We are All Salesmen of Ourselves’

6/25/2007

John Babcock, a member of the Friends of Ithaca College, recently made a gift to establish the John Babcock Endowment for the Assessment of Undergraduate Writing Instruction.

John Babcock attributes his joining the Friends of IC in 1963 to Craig McHenry ’30, M.S. ’46, a longtime professor and dean of the School of Music. “He was an idol of my youth, my early music instructor, and a friend until his death. I had warm memories relating to him and the old downtown campus. I watched him and [Howard and Dorothy] Dillingham establish the new campus and heeded their every call for help and support.”

John grew up on Sunnygables Farm in Ithaca, an experience he memorialized in a novel titled Farmboy: Hard Work and Good Times on a Farm that Helped Change Northeast Agriculture, which was published by the Dewitt Historical Society of Tompkins County in 1999.

John enrolled at Cornell University as a pre-med student in 1941, but World War II interrupted his studies, and he served a tour in the combat infantry. He completed his studies at Cornell in English literature in 1948 and became a broadcast executive in radio and television, first in the Midwest and eventually executive vice president of Park Communications in Ithaca. “I now approach my 85^th birthday,” John says, “contenting myself with writing after a career in communications.”

Writing is also the focus of a recent gift John made to Ithaca College to establish the John Babcock Endowment for the Assessment of Undergraduate Writing Instruction.

“I’ve been called on over the years by several colleges and universities to lecture on radio and television management,” John says, “and I was struck by the inability of undergraduates to describe their own lives, hopes, and aspirations. I want to encourage professionalism in articulating to others and students themselves the very craft they pursue. 

“The bottom line is: We are all salesmen of ourselves. To be creditable starts and ends with the ability to communicate effectively with others.”