Steve Barkin, a longtime journalism professor at the University of Maryland who began his career as a radio reporter in Atlanta and later became a respected scholar of television news history, died on March 1 in Ellicott City after years of declining health. He was 80.
A proud Jew whose identity was shaped by a large Southern Jewish family, Barkin carried that heritage throughout his life — from synagogue leadership in rural Pennsylvania to encouraging his children to build Jewish homes of their own.
“He came from a very, very strong Jewish family,” his son, Joel Barkin, said. “It was always central to who he was.”
Barkin and an older brother grew up in Atlanta in a family with ancestral roots in what is now Belarus. His father, Jake Barkin, was an accountant for the Internal Revenue Service, and his mother, Sophie Barkin, helped shape a home where Jewish traditions were an important part of daily life. Relatives in the old country had made tzitzit, a detail the family remembered with pride.
Barkin developed an early interest in writing. He wrote for school publications and later attended Washington University in St. Louis, where he studied English and graduated near the top of the class. Although law school was the expected path in his family, he chose journalism.
At Washington University he met Michael Curtis Lund, who became his roommate, fellow English major and a lifelong friend.
“When he sat down to write, the paper was already finished in his mind,” Lund said. “I would be tearing pages out of a legal pad and cutting and pasting drafts, while Steve would just walk around thinking about it. Then he would sit down and write.”
After college, Barkin enrolled at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. While in New York, he covered the campus protests of the late 1960s and reported on crime, housing and racial issues during internships.
He began his professional career as a radio reporter in Atlanta, covering a wide range of stories and interviewing prominent figures, including the Apollo 11 astronauts, Jimmy Carter and basketball star Wilt Chamberlain.
“He loved just striking up conversations,” said Joel Barkin, who is a communications executive in New York. His sister, Stephanie Krantz, is a Maryland social worker.
Barkin later became an editor at Highlights for Children in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, a position that combined his interests in journalism and education. During those years he and his wife, Wendy, became active members of Congregation Beth Israel, which was founded and constructed in the mid-1800s.
Henry M. Skier, a fellow congregant, said, “We became almost brothers. It was very rare that we would celebrate anything in our lives without doing it together.”
Skier said Barkin was thoughtful, bright and deeply committed to his family and friends.
“He loved his family, and he always saw the better part of life,” Skier said.
Barkin eventually earned a doctorate in journalism at Ohio State University and joined the faculty of the University of Maryland. He would spend more than three decades there, teaching generations of students. He led the school’s journalism honors program.
Joel Barkin said his father was drawn to the College Park campus partly because of its proximity to both Washington and Baltimore — two cities central to American politics and media.
In the classroom, Barkin encouraged discussion and challenged students to think carefully about the role journalism plays in public life. Lund said his friend’s curiosity and intellect made him well-suited to encourage young writers.
“I think he probably did well inspiring young people to see the value of journalism, the value of writing,” Lund said.
He particularly enjoyed mentoring advanced students and helping them move into careers in journalism or academia.
Joel Barkin said his father believed deeply that democratic societies depended on strong journalistic institutions and responsible reporting. His academic work and publishing examined the development of television news and the pressures that shape it.
“He came out of an era where television journalists were real reporters who were holding power accountable,” Joel Barkin said. “He worried about what happens when journalism turns into entertainment and when celebrity personalities replace reporting. He believed society depended on strong journalistic institutions, and he was concerned about what happens when that disappears.”
Barkin also traveled widely as a professor. He spent six months teaching at Leeds University in England and lectured throughout Europe. He also traveled to South Africa during the apartheid era to speak about journalism and its role in democratic societies.
Joel Barkin said that experience was especially meaningful to his father because he had grown up in the segregated American South.
Outside his professional life, Barkin was known as an avid reader with a remarkable memory. His son said he could read a 400-page book in a few hours and recall the details later. The family home was filled with newspapers, magazines and books.
“He was Google before it existed to us,” Joel Barkin said.
Barkin’s marriage to Wendy lasted 56 years. They raised their children at Columbia Jewish Congregation and later joined Congregation Bet Aviv. Joel Barkin said his father had enormous respect for his wife, a special education paraprofessional in Howard County public schools. He credited her care with helping him endure many years of serious illness.
Even after suffering strokes and cognitive decline, Barkin remained determined to attend family milestones. Shortly before his grandson Noah was born, he suffered a stroke that left the family unsure whether he would survive.
Eight days after the baby’s birth, however, Barkin was present for the bris in New York.
“He showed up at every bris, every bar mitzvah, every bat mitzvah, every holiday, every graduation,” Joel Barkin said. He was a proud and devoted grandfather to Noah, Alex, Nathan and Leah.
Reflecting on his father’s life, Joel Barkin said the most important lesson he learned was about the importance of relationships and curiosity.
“Search out good people, bring them close and keep them close,” he told his son. “And lead with curiosity.”
Ellen Braunstein is a freelance writer.
