In January 1968, Janis Froelich was named the editor of the Kent Stater.

During this time, she and her team of students worked together to cover major events from the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. to the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Since graduating from Kent State, Froelich has worked at five different newspapers over the span of 40 years. 

Froelich explained her interest in journalism started at a young age, with her sixth-grade teacher encouraging her to pursue journalism due to her strong editing skills and love of reading. She said that she was constantly at her local library, reading books and studying them with perfect editing.

During her experience at Kenmore High School, Froelich served as editor of her school’s newspaper. She said that her advisor played a huge role in her choice to attend Kent State, applying for a scholarship at the university without Froelich’s knowledge.

“And so in May, before I was ready to go to school, I found out that I’ve won the Northeast Scholastic Press Association Scholarship,” Froelich said. “That paid for my first year at Kent State, which was good, and that was my choice. It was near Akron, and I really liked it. They had a newspaper office in the basement of Taylor Hall at the time, and the daily newspaper had maybe 30 people on the staff. And then, at some point, we were all paid for working on it, which was nice.” 

Froelich graduated the same year she was named editor of the Kent Stater, and a year later, went on to work for the Akron Beacon Journal. She credits her experience working at the Kent Stater as one of the reasons she was hired.

She reflected on the atmosphere of her journalism experience in the late ’60s to early ’70s, a time period that is historically regarded as one that was rife with turmoil due to Vietnam and assassinations of beloved leaders. 

“The turmoil was bad,” Froelich said. “And then, when I was at the Beacon Journal, May 4th happened. And I didn’t necessarily get involved with the coverage, but I was able to tell the reporters who they needed to contact like professor Jerry Lewis and all those other people since I knew the campus so well.” 

Froelich was initially unsure about applying for the editor position at Kent Stater, believing that her opponent had the upper hand due to having a more prestigious internship on his resume. However, to her surprise, the newspaper chose Froelich instead. surprise. 

“I think I learned that if you want something, just go for it, and hopefully you get it,” she said. “I guess that was my biggest life lesson, and I’ve done that ever since. Just go ahead and apply for something.” 

Froelich highlighted that some of her favorite memories from the Kent Stater were about her relationship with her late ex-husband, Larry Froelich, who worked as a police reporter at the Akron Beacon Journal during her time at Kent State. She also talked about how her time at the Kent Stater allowed her to build relationships with people who shared similar passions when it came to journalism. 

“We sit around the copy desk at night and do the editing and then talk story assignments, and I think about the people we met,” Froelich said. “And then you could sit down with the president of the university when you’re the editor of the paper. So you could get access to whatever’s going on campus, and I always enjoyed that.” 

Froelich currently lives in Tierra Verde, a small island in Florida, where she serves as the president of St. Petersburg’s Friends of the Main Library. She also still spends her time writing in her retirement, either attending writing circles near Eckerd College or working on short stories about her life. She looks back at her experience at the Kent Stater as positive and beneficial, crediting her work in student media as a large reason she was able to have such an expansive, long career in journalism. 

“We always had a great staff,” Froelich said. “I never had to ask where their story was or ask them if they talked to so-and-so because we had these journalism classes that were really great at the time. And the people either went on to newspapers, or they went on to public relations. That was the other thing about being able to write and being in journalism: there were so many career opportunities. You could be a spokesperson for the police department. It could be PR at a university. There were unlimited career opportunities.”

Ava Dunn is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].