Frank Norwood started his educational broadcasting career in 1955 as the assistant to the director of the Institute for Education by Radio-Television at Ohio State University. Subsequent positions included program associate for Higher Education for the National Center for School and College Television (1966-1968) and executive director of the Joint Council on Educational Telecommunications (JCET) (1968-1982). Finally, he was a founding member of the Public Service Satellite Consortium (PSSC) and served on the Board of Directors of National Educational Radio, the Western Radio-Television Association and the National Association of Educational Broadcasters. The material mostly covers Norwood's time at the JCET, though a good amount of the collection documents Norwood's consulting activities. Types of documents in the collection include articles and journals, position papers, letters and memos, government documents, contract and bid materials, conference materials, meeting minutes, commercial brochures, and the handwritten notes of Norwood. A small amount of nonprint material is also included in the form of photos and videotape.
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20.00 Linear Feet
English
The Frank W. Norwood Papers span the years 1952 to 1983. The bulk of the collection dates from the early 1970s to 1983, with a fair amount of material from the 1960s. Only a small amount of the collection predates 1960. The material mostly covers Norwood's time at the JCET, though a good amount of the collection documents Norwood's consulting activities. Types of documents in the collection include articles and journals, position papers, letters and memos, government documents, contract and bid materials, conference materials, meeting minutes, commercial brochures, and the handwritten notes of Norwood. A small amount of nonprint material is also included in the form of photos and videotape.
Summary:
Frank W. Norwood was born in New York City in 1928. He served as assistant to the director of the Institute for Education by Radio-Television (1955-1957); program associate for Higher Education, National Center for School and College Television (1966-1968); and executive director of Joint Council for Educational Telecommunications (1968-1992). Norwood died in 1983.
Biography of Frank W. Norwood:
Frank W. Norwood was born in New York City in 1928. He received his B.A. from Queens College in Flushing, New York., in 1950, and continued on at that institution as a Speech Fellow, receiving his M.A. in 1951.
His first position after graduation was as an instructor in Speech at the University of Missouri in Columbia. This term of employment was interrupted in 1952 when Norwood was drafted into the U.S. Army. From 1952 until 1954, Norwood served first as a specialist in Radio-Television and Public Information, and later as the head of the Radio-TV Branch of the Public Information Office for Operation FLASH BURN.
Honorably discharged in 1954, Norwood returned to his position at the University of Missouri, where he took on additional responsibilities as writer-producer of University Programs at KOMY-TV, Channel 8 in Columbia, Missouri.
In 1955 Norwood left the University of Missouri for a stint as the assistant to the director of the Institute for Education by Radio-Television at Ohio State University. He returned to Missouri the following year as a writer-producer for FM radio station KSLH, which was operated by the St. Louis Board of Education.
In 1957, another professional opportunity took the newly married Norwood and his bride, Shirley Jones Norwood, west to California and a post at San Diego State University. Appointed an assistant professor in speech arts, Norwood was made an associate professor in 1960. During his time at San Diego State, Norwood also served as general manager of noncommercial FM station KEBS and television coordinator for the university.
Norwood left San Diego University in 1966 for a position with the Agency for Instructional Television in Bloomington, Indiana as a program associate for Higher Education. While serving in this capacity Norwood also held a joint appointment as an associate professor at Indiana University.
In 1968, Norwood left academia for the job that would occupy his energies for practically the rest of his career. He accepted the position of executive director of the Joint Council on Educational Telecommunications, a consortium of nonprofit educational and communications organizations. Among the accomplishments of the JCET under Norwood's tenure was the adoption of an international frequency allocation for broadcast satellites. This action opened the way for Health/Education Telecommunications experiments on NASA's ATS-6 satellite. The JCET played a part in these experiments as well as those undertaken on a joint U.S.-Canada venture, the Communications Technology Satellite, then the most powerful in earth orbit. Norwood served as chairman of the Evaluation Working Group for U.S. experiments, and helped to organize the Joint User's Meeting from which he produced the first U.S.-Canadian television broadcast transmitted by the CTS.
Norwood continued to write and lecture throughout his association with the JCET. Representative articles include "Technology in the Service of Rural Education" for the National Institute of Education; "The Impact of Satellites on Networks" for the FCC; and "The Emerging Telecommunications Environment" in Networks for Networkers. He lectured before the Royal Society in London, the Latin American Institute of Educational Communications in Mexico City and in Europe for the U.S. International Communications Agency. He also attended literally hundreds of communication-related conferences around the globe on behalf of the JCET, most notably presenting papers at the International Astronautical Federation Congresses in Prague (1977) and Munich (1979).
Toward the latter part of his time with JCET, Norwood began to establish himself as an independent consultant on telecommunications, cable and satellite issues. While still with the JCET, Norwood fulfilled contracts for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; the Carnegie Commission; and the Sloan Foundation. To facilitate this growing work, Norwood founded Communications Planning and Management, Inc., a company which became the focus of his professional activities upon the near collapse of the JCET, which resulted in the termination of its entire full-time staff in 1982. Mr. Norwood was engaged in several interesting projects, including development of a college cable and satellite system known as the Campus Entertainment Network, when his untimely death cut his work short in 1983.
Mr. Norwood was a founding member of the Public Service Satellite Consortium and served on the Board of Directors of National Educational Radio, the Western Radio-Television Association and the National Association of Educational Broadcasters.
About the Joint Council on Educational Telecommunications (JCET)
The JCET was founded in 1950, and was originally known as the Joint Committee on Educational Television. Its primary task was to provide leadership in persuading the FCC to reserve television channels for noncommercial broadcasting. Without timely action at that critical juncture, the development of ETV and the creation of a national network for public television would have been lost forever.
The organization became somewhat moribund after that initial period of accomplishment, but emerged revitalized in the 1960s, changing its name first to Joint Council on Educational Television and finally to the Joint Council on Educational Telecommunications. The new name reflected its desire to play a broader role in the changing communication environment. It eventually counted more than twenty national nonprofit education and communications organizations among its members, as well as many smaller regional entities. As before, the primary function of the organization was one of advocacy, protecting the interests of the educational community in an increasingly diverse and profit-oriented media universe. The JCET was involved in issues of satellite access and educational channel allotments on cable systems, as well as computer technology, media and education integration.
Revenue to run the JCET came from member organizations in the form of dues, as well as support from such sources as the Kettering Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the National Cable Television Association, and the Johnson Foundation. A severe drought in funds and donations in the late 1970s and early 1980s caused the closing of the Washington office of the JCET and a massive reeducation in the activities of the Council.
The collection is organized as seven series:
The Frank W. Norwood Papers were donated to the National Public Broadcasting Archives, Special Collections, University of Maryland Libraries by Shirley Norwood in May of 1991 and in June of 1995.
The Papers of Frank W. Norwood were organized into seven series, then further broken down into subseries as noted. Paper clips, staples, rubber bands, and plastic ring bindings were removed and replaced with plastic clips where needed. During processing, all items were removed from folders, envelopes, and binders and placed in acid-free folders. Duplicates were discarded. Newspaper clippings were copied onto acid-free bond, and the clippings were discarded. Photographs were cleaned with an approved cleansing agent and placed between sheets of acid-free bond. Once the folders were labeled, they were placed in acid-free boxes. Lastly, a small number of reference books were transferred to the National Public Broadcasting Archives' Reference Shelves.
Part of the Special Collections and University Archives