On John "Jack" Gareis' retirement, August 31, 2020

Congratulations to Dr. John ‘Jack’ Gareis, who has retired from Pitt effective August 31, 2020. Dr. Gareis is an institution at Pitt. He served as a Senior Lecturer in Communication for more than three decades. Communication majors know him well, because he has offered them sound, thoughtful Advisement. He and Dr. Guthrie have served for many years as the emcees for the Department’s Recognition Day. You could dependably see from the undergraduate students’ warmth in greeting them during the ceremony that they were grateful for Dr. Gareis’s supportive attention.

            Dr. Gareis is an outstanding teacher. Every term his teaching evaluations are stellar. His course on Communication Process was especially popular among the large lecture courses. A practicing pastor, he regularly taught courses on Filtered Faith as well as Rhetoric and Culture: American Civil Religion. He taught a number of other courses for the Department, such as Theories of Persuasion. He always taught the orientation course for Freshman Studies. He chaired the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee for many years. It came as no surprise when Dr. Gareis was recognized as a Bellet Award winning teacher in the Dietrich School. With co-author, Dr. Ellen Cohn, Dr. Gareis wrote Communication as Culture: An Introduction to the Communication Process, a popular text book. Dr. Gareis was a huge Pitt football sports fan, even being invited as guest faculty coach by student athletes.

            Please join me in offering heartfelt congratulations to Dr. Jack Gareis on this milestone in his career at Pitt.