More than 50 years ago, a UWM student named John Torres met a professor who gave him the confidence to believe in himself and pursue his dream of being a journalist.
Torres and dozens of other alumni responded to an August 2024 email from the UWM Alumni Association inviting them to share a message with their favorite professor.
Torres wrote about Sharon Murphy, who taught journalism and mass communications courses. “I arrived at UWM with very poor writing skills,” Torres recalled. “I was ashamed to hand in my work; it would come back covered in red ink, with warnings that I was failing. Only she saw something good in my work and wrote an encouraging note.”
Murphy, who left UWM in 1979, says she still remembers Torres. “He was very shy and very uncertain, but he really, really wanted to be a journalist.”
According to Murphy, the journalism class she taught had a 75% survival rate, meaning one in four students dropped her class before the semester ended. “The fact that he persisted meant that he was going to make it, or at least that’s what it meant to me.”
Torres did eventually become a journalist, and he now owns Radio Caliente 97.9 FM and Smooth Jazz 102.5 FM radio stations in Milwaukee. But his path to a degree was not a straight shot. With only a few credits to go, Torres dropped out when he couldn’t pass algebra.
He began working in media but soon found that he couldn’t apply for certain jobs without a college degree. Torres found jobs at various radio stations and media outlets, but gravitated toward radio. He became an entrepreneur, establishing Radio Caliente and Smooth Jazz 102.5.
He was proud of the fact he had attended UWM, but he knew that his story there wasn’t finished. While graduating from eighth grade, his son, Joshua, asked Torres where his UWM diploma was. Torres confessed he hadn’t graduated and decided it was time to tackle the algebra class and finish his bachelor’s degree.
Torres returned to UWM, passed algebra, and graduated in 2004, 31 years after he began his academic journey.
“It was against all odds when I walked across the stage to receive my diploma,” Torres recalled. “I had to smile in that moment and look back at the journey and remember Sharon and her kind words that helped someone that nobody thought was worth saving. May God bless her.”
Torres will soon attend another UWM commencement: Joshua will graduate with a doctorate in information studies in the spring.
Listen to more of Torres’ story – as well as that of UWM grad Lindsay Frost, who remembered how a UWM anthropology class taught by Jean Hudson changed her career path – on the UWM Chancellor’s Report on WUWM.
