By Ralph Derickson

Richard Wilson, above, will take the reins of UK's School of Journalism and Telecommunications on July 1, subject to Board of Trustees' approval.

Feb. 13, 2002 (Lexington, Ky.) -- Richard Wilson, a retired Louisville Courier-Journal reporter and news bureau chief, has been named interim director of the University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications. Wilson's appointment is subject to approval by the UK Board of Trustees at its March 5 meeting. He will succeed Leland "Buck" Ryan, the current director, on July 1.

Until then, Wilson will be a consultant to the school, which is preparing for reaccreditation by the Association of Education in Journalism and Mass Communications. Ryan, director for more than seven years, will remain a faculty member at the school and director of both the First Amendment Center and the Media Center for the Future.

Wilson, 64, retired from The Courier-Journal in 1999 after nearly 32 years as a reporter in Louisville, Frankfort and Lexington. Chief of the newspaper's Blue Grass Bureau from 1985 to 1999, he was noted for his extensive and award-winning coverage of Kentucky higher education. Since his retirement, Wilson has been an adjunct professor of journalism at Kentucky State University.

College of Communications and Information Studies Dean David Johnson said, "I am delighted that someone of Mr. Wilson's professional stature will be leading the school during this critical period in its history."

Wilson, a member of the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, will head the journalism school until June 30, 2003. A nationwide search for a permanent director will begin later this spring.

Wilson is a 1966 graduate of the UK journalism school where he has also been an adjunct instructor and member of its Alumni Association Board.

From 1965 to 1967, Wilson was faculty adviser to The Kentucky Kernel, the independent student-operated newspaper at UK. He has also been a reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader and Frankfort State Journal.