01/15/2024
Rest in Peace, friend and colleague Chuck Baldwin of Burbank, S.D., respected journalist, editor, teacher, mentor, diversity advocate, First Amendment champion, father and husband.
The sad news of Chuck’s death, Dec. 18, 2023, was shared in a Facebook post by his son Josh: “I just wanted to let everyone know that my father passed away this week. Memorial service information will follow at some point, but nothing imminent is planned yet. To his colleagues, students, mentees, and everyone at USD: teaching journalism was one of the great loves of his life. He cared deeply for you all.”
Chuck led an impactful life and career. He leaves a great legacy.
Chuck spent his first 35 years in the news business as a working journalist – editor, photographer and reporter – covering sports, politics, race issues, refugees and other issues, writing columns and editorials, traveling several states and traveling several countries to tell stories.
He was opinion editor of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader until 2007, when he was hired by the Freedom Forum and University of South Dakota to become the first full-time journalist in residence at the Al Neuharth Media Center in Vermillion.
At USD, Chuck was advisor to The Volante, oversaw Journalism City for South Dakota Girls State and taught writing, reporting, media law and ethics to undergraduate students in the Department of Media and Journalism. Chuck ran the Al Neuharth Journalism Scholarship program, supervised newsroom internships for USD students, was a long-time faculty member of the ground-breaking American Indian Journalism Institute and a mentor for a dozen years at the Crazy Horse Journalism Workshop held at Crazy Horse Memorial. Chuck served on the First Amendment Committee of the South Dakota NewsMedia Association and was a founding board member of South Dakotans for Open Government.
Among the well-deserved tributes to Chuck is this post from Dr. Michelle VanMaanen, chair of the USD Department of Media and Journalism: “It is with great sadness that we announce the death of a beloved journalist and mentor. Former Media & Journalism faculty member Chuck Baldwin died on December 18th. As adviser to The Volante and in the classroom, Chuck mentored so many former students who now serve in the industry as digital storytellers, public relations practitioners, and journalists who serve the public interest across the country and beyond. A spring celebration of Chuck’s life is being planned by his son Josh, to whom we send our deepest condolences.”
David Bordewyk of the South Dakota NewsMedia Association writes: "It is with great sadness that we learned of the recent death of Charles “Chuck” Baldwin, a longtime journalist and journalism educator and SDNA friend and colleague. Chuck died unexpectedly on Sunday, Dec. 17. He was 70. Chuck was a career newspaper journalist who worked at the Argus Leader as its editorial page editor. He went on to teach at USD Media & Journalism and was adviser for the student newspaper, The Volante. Chuck was passionate and vocal about First Amendment and free press issues and contributed a great deal to SDNA’s work on those fronts. He was a longtime member of the SDNA First Amendment Committee, mentored at the Crazy Horse Journalism Conference for several years and led various presentations for SDNA on editorial writing. We extend our condolences to his son, Josh Baldwin, who posted on Facebook recently that a celebration of Chuck’s life is planned for this spring."
