In honor of the University’s 125th anniversary, we offer an in-depth tribute to one of Simmons’ most beloved faculty mentors, the late Professor Emeritus Alden W. Poole.
Professor Emeritus Alden W. Poole (1925–2015) “really prided himself in being a good adviser and spending a lot of time with his students … he used to talk about how important that was,” his daughter, Lucy Burlingame ’80, ’83MA, told The Simmons Voice in 2018.
A World War II military veteran turned journalist, Poole was a faculty member and later chair of Simmons’ Department of Communications from 1955 to 1986. He taught courses in journalism, article writing, and copyediting. Poole also supervised contributors of the student newspaper (then called Janus).
Outside of Simmons, Poole’s most celebrated professional role was serving as the Executive Editor of The Boston Herald (retitled The Herald American for a brief period during his editorship). As a seasoned reporter, newspaper editor, and copyeditor, Poole became a trusted mentor to multiple generations of Simmons students and alumnae/i.
An Engaged Professor
Poole’s dense professional experience equipped him to cultivate students’ career preparation. Given his many connections to the local media and the popular press (he was a member of the Newspaper Guild AFL-CIO, Society of Professional Journalists, Association for Education in Journalism, New England Press Association, and the American Association of University Professors), he helped place many students in their first internships. Numerous Simmons and Boston-area publications named him among Boston’s best professors.
In true Simmons fashion, Poole’s pedagogy bridged academic learning with real-world skills. His courses helped students hone their factual writing repertoire; they composed diverse types of reportage, including reviews, editorials, features, and coverage of current political events and court cases. Furthermore, Poole taught interviewing skills and copy editing, all the while attuning students to the deadline-driven nature of the newsroom environment.
Never shy to voice his opinion, Poole was quoted liberally in Janus, emphasizing the importance of combining liberal thought and vocational training in college. In 1977, Poole told Janus: “The professional and liberal arts courses must be integrated in such a way that will ensure the survival of the institution.” In a 1981 “Letters to the Editors” in Janus, Poole wrote: “We are fighting an appalling tendency to overrate the value of professional courses at the expense of real intellectual enrichment.” Evidently, Poole believed that both the humanities and professional training were necessary for obtaining a holistic education.
Mentor to Aspiring Journalists
Many of Poole’s former students went on to establish admirable careers in the media, journalism, arts, and entertainment. A few luminaries include film producer Denise Di Novi ’77, ’97HD; NBC Chief Education Correspondent Rehema Ellis ’74, ’00HD; and WBUR’s All Things Considered Host Lisa Mullins ’80, ’05HD.
Decades after graduating from Simmons, Poole’s students acknowledged the pivotal role he played in their careers. Maria Karagianis ’70 was one of the first full-time female staff writers of The Boston Globe and later won a Pulitzer Prize for her reporting. In 2023, she told Simmons News that Poole’s journalism class was a turning point in her life. One day, Poole asked to see Karagianis after class. “He pointed his finger right in my face, and said, ‘You are a writer,’” she recounts. “For me, meeting Professor Poole at Simmons was an amazing stroke of luck. He changed my life. This was a big thing for a working-class Greek girl. It gave me courage; if I could do this, I could do a lot of things.”
Maggie Knowles ’02, formerly the Editor-in-Chief of edible MAINE, a food magazine dedicated to sustainable local cuisine, encountered Poole during her time as a Dix Scholar. As she told Simmons News, “Professor Poole was one of the most amazing professors I ever had. He taught the Editing Copy and Proof class . . . He made me fall in love with editing — the precision, respect, and sheer mathematical genius behind it. And of course, he taught me how to carry a story.”
Perhaps Poole’s most well-known mentee was Gwen Ifill ’77, ’93HD (1955–2016). She credited Poole for helping her land her first journalism job with The Boston Herald in 1977, where she began as a food writer. Ifill secured subsequent posts at The Baltimore Evening Sun, The Washington Post, The New York Times, NBC, and ultimately in 1999, the PBS NewsHour. For her outstanding accomplishments, Ifill received an honorary doctorate from Simmons and the University named a School after her: The Gwen Ifill School of Media, Humanities, and Social Sciences.
Surprisingly, Ifill experienced a jarring introduction to her studies with Poole. When the Ifill School hosted “A Conversation of Remembrance” in October 2024 to honor Gwen Ifill’s legacy, her older brother Trustee Dr. Roberto “Bert” Ifill recalled how she received a grade of D for the first paper she submitted to Poole. “This was a sobering lesson,” said Dr. Ifill. “But later Poole became her advisor … and was a great promoter of her ever since.”
Gwen Ifill later reminisced that Poole instilled in her the confidence to navigate a male and White-dominated industry. “I had Alden Poole in my head saying, ‘Ah, you can do it,’” she said in an interview with Harvard University. David Shribman’s edited volume, I Remember My Teacher: 365 Reminiscences of the Teachers Who Changed Our Lives (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2002) contains more of Ifill’s reflections on Poole: “He was a crusty old newspaperman but he managed to make everything seem brand-new and fresh to us … He took a bunch of kids who had no idea what they wanted to do with their lives and made them believe they wanted to be newspaper reporters.”
In 2008, Poole defended Ifill’s career in The Boston Herald. At the time, Ifill was about to host the Vice-Presidential debate on PBS featuring candidates Sarah Palin and Joe Biden. Some authorities called into question Ifill’s impartiality as a debate moderator since her forthcoming book, The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama (Knopf Publishing Group, 2009), contained a flattering portrait of then Presidential candidate Barack Obama. But Poole retorted, “She’s a professional … I challenge anyone to conclude a bias in the way she handles that debate.”
In a birthday card to Poole, Ifill wrote: “The lessons you taught me at Simmons still endure. I am honored to be one of your journalistic offspring.” When The Simmons Voice commemorated Ifill in the aftermath of her passing, Staff Writer Mackenzie Farkus ’20 wrote, “She considered the late Professor Alden Poole, who taught journalism classes at the College, to be one of her most trusted mentors.”
A Life of Duty and Activism
Joining the army promptly after high school, Poole served overseas in the 100th Infantry Division during World War II. He received a Bronze Star, among other recognitions, for his service. The shocking effects of war rewired him psychologically and spiritually, inspiring a later conversion to Catholicism.
A self-proclaimed “radical Catholic,” Poole immersed himself in peace and social justice efforts. An obituary published in The Boston Globe noted that Poole was “a frequent presence in protests,” including those against nuclear weapons, the Iraq War, and the death penalty. In his community service, volunteering, and activist roles, Poole worked with the South Shore Coalition for Human Rights and the Boston branch of the NAACP, and was a lifetime member of Disabled American Veterans. In his local Quincy community, Poole advocated for racial equity, fair housing, and a nuclear freeze. He was arrested half a dozen times for protesting.
Upon retiring from Simmons, Poole relished preparing comfort food for large crowds at Boston’s Haley House Soup Kitchen. He enjoyed music — particularly Giacomo Puccini’s operas and choral music — and sailing. He also dabbled in carpentry.
Always the quintessential reporter, Poole drafted a version of his own obituary and revised it over the years. As he conveyed in writings he left behind for his family, Poole wrote, “I want my obit to tell who I was — not to feed my own vanity, since I will be gone — but perhaps to inspire in my loved ones and the larger society a realization that there is more to life than consumerism and self-indulgence.”
With his wife Janet (Cotter) Poole (1928–2022), Alden Poole had nine children. His lineage continues with 20 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. “He was a man of conscience and action, and that’s kind of rare,” his daughter, the (now retired) Reverend Mary Poole, told The Boston Globe.
A Lasting Legacy at Simmons
Since 2018, the Ifill School annually honors a stellar faculty mentor with The Alden Poole Faculty Mentor Award. This award recognizes an individual who has “had a profound impact on the life, career, or direction of students at Simmons University.”
“I love to welcome my students as colleagues,” said Professor Emerita of History Laura Prieto, upon receiving the award in 2021. “And my stake in their future doesn’t end when I’m no longer their professor. Mentorship exceeds the bounds of the classroom; it’s about helping another person map the right path for themselves and encouraging them to dare to follow that path. We all need mentors when we hit the swampy ground and when we have victories we want to share.”
Professor of Communications Bob White, the 2022 award recipient, shared his personal take on mentorship: “I have stood quietly. I have stood to one side. I have stood among my students. Gifted, brilliant, amazing artists, and scholars.”
White praised his departmental colleague in a 2007 speech he delivered at Simmons, poeticizing the transformative effect that Poole had on Simmons students:
“He [Professor Alden Poole] taught them how to think.
He taught them how to write.
Our Alden sat with them and their rewrites.
He got them internships.
. . . At newspapers
and magazine
and radio stations.
He got them published.
He got them jobs.
Those jobs became careers.
Their careers
informed their lives and the lives of so many others.”
Through thoughtful mentorship, intellectual integrity, and impassioned activism, Poole left a lasting mark on the Simmons community.