Bill Kamrath, an educator, adviser and journalism professor at EC died last Thursday at the age of 89, leaving a legacy as a founding father of EC and teaching many students the craft and art of journalism.
“It is with a lot of sadness that we mark his passing. He is one of the key professors that came in to EC in the first ten years of the college’s life and spent a decade building a good reputation for this campus,” Tom Lew, dean of the Humanities Division, said.
Kamrath, a World War II veteran, taught at EC from 1953 to 1983 and was the adviser to the newspaper when it was known as the Warwhoop.
Many students under his tutelage went on to do great things, some working at local news publications.
“He was a solid teacher and a real inspiration to students,” Lew said.
One of his students, Robert Lindsey wrote “The Falcon and the Snowman,” which was turned into a movie starring Sean Penn in 1985.
Kamrath won two national Pacemaker Awards as well as 56 other awards for excellence in journalism.
“One former student, Gary Palmer, said to Bill, ‘You really are responsible for rooting my life, because you got me into a profession that pays terribly, but one that I love,'” Lew said.
Karmath’s granddaughter Lindsey Kamrath even followed in his footsteps joining the newspaper as assistant news editor then as sports editor.
While everyone else viewed him as a scion of the journalism department, Lindsey Kamrath saw her grandfather in a different light.
“They all saw a different side to him, but to me he was always papa. I’ll always remember sitting at his house in Redondo Beach playing Monopoly,” Lindsey Karmath said.
Lindsey Kamrath’s fondest memory of her grandfather is when she told him she was going to take a journalism class here.
“We had dinner at his house, and I had just created my schedule and I said, ‘Oh, papa I am enrolled in a journalism class.’ He just beamed; you could tell he was proud and he said, ‘You’re taking that with Combs, Jolene Combs; she’s really good.’ That is my favorite memory because so much was said in that smile that he didn’t have to say much (with his words),” Lindsey Karmath said.
Combs, professor emeritus, replaced Kamrath following his retirement.
“I heard from many of his former students that they were surprised he died because to them, he was immortal,” Combs said.