Homer Wayne Scott, Jr., has a special place in the history of education and of newspapers and, in his case, the two areas are inextricably intertwined. Mix in a story about Fidel Castro and it begins to gain the flavor one might expect of historical characters.

But, first a little background.

Scott spent the last 25 or so years of his working life in education, after a couple of stints with newspapers and then in the advertising industry. He died in November.

Scott was an extremely bright man and wrote like many of us only dream of being able to write.

Upon graduating from Houston Lamar High School, Wayne went to what many still consider one of the best journalism/ communications schools in the nation, the University of Texas-Austin. Some early serious ailments necessitated treatment and recuperation in Houston and cut short his UT education. Upon recovering, however, he found the University of Houston to offer the opportunities and challenges that a mind such as Wayne Scott’s required. It was here that I made the acquaintance of this very bright young man.

Since his illness caused a couple of years interruption in his college education, he was an “older student” that we younger guys looked up to.

Several years after he and I graduated and went our separate ways to make our mark in the world, he called me and said there was a newspaper editing opportunity he’d accepted that really was more than a one-man job and he’d recommended to the publisher that he and I have a dual and equal editing role. To prove the need for two of us, he told the publisher he’d work for half of what I would (because I was married and he was single).

And, that’s what we did. We edited this weekly newspaper that had been moved into Rosenberg, Texas, where there were two other papers. Upon the “death” of the old Houston Press, leaving Houston with the Post and the Chronicle, and with the demise of the third paper in Los Angeles, Calif., Rosenberg became the only town west of the Mississippi River with three newspapers.

In a few months, Wayne’s health worsened again and he went home to recuperate. Later he’d go into advertising before finally finding the niche he filled at our alma mater for the next quarter century or so. He became the adviser to student publications at UH (the newspaper and the yearbook), then assistant manager of the Office of Information and a professor of journalism.

But, back to the student days at the University of Houston and the establishing of his place of admiration among his younger fellow journalism students.

Wayne Scott was chosen to be editor of the student newspaper, the Cougar, in January 1959. Fellow students Gordon Fales and I were named managing editor and copy editor respectively.

Within a month of Scott’s assuming the editor’s duties, a historic event occurred. A young Cuban revolutionary, Fidel Castro overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista and made a triumphant tour of the United States. One of the stops was Houston.

Scott, a very bright and enterprising editor, obtained an exclusive, late night interview with Castro in a penthouse of the famous Shamrock Hilton Hotel. Scott was accompanied to the interview by Fales.

The next day, Scott, Fales and I sat in the Cougar office dissecting the interview. Finally, Scott looked at us and said, “I believe Fidel Castro is a communist, but I don’t know if that’s what I should write.”

Fales and I, knowing Scott’s intellect and analytical skill, told him that if that’s what he believed, then he should write it.

The University of Houston Cougar became the first newspaper in the United States to label Fidel Castro a communist. Scott wrote a masterful article, carefully laying out the case for determining that Castro was indeed more than the “agrarian reformer” he claimed to be.

I for one am glad Wayne Scott advised and taught young journalists, encouraging them to pursue careers in newspapers. He was perfect for the job.

Willis Webb is a retired community newspaper editor and publisher. He can be reached by email at wwebb@wildblue.net.