Though not a journalist himself, Charles R. O'Malley '44 certainly rates as a friend of the Fourth Estate.

O'Malley, who worked in the office of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association as a student to help pay for his college education and served as its director from 1969 to 1981, recently donated $532,000 to the Charles R. O'Malley Columbia Scholastic Press Association Fund, to which his gifts now total more than $1 million. The Fund helps defray the expenses of the CSPA's conventions and publications.

O'Malley, 84, was honored in March at a luncheon during the CSPA's annual national convention that brings thousands of high school journalists to the Columbia campus, an event he frequently has attended since graduation. O'Malley recalled working "seven days a week" in the months leading up to the convention. "But it's helping journalism," he quickly added. "When I decided to take the job, I got hold of some journalism books and took courses in journalism and talked to a lot of people. I ended up in the Scholastic Journalism Hall of Fame" at the University of Oklahoma.

O'Malley worked for Pan American Airways, Mobil Oil and the T.J. Stevenson Co. (shipping) and represented the Plough group of over 50 radio and TV stations in their dealings with ad agencies before serving as director of the CSPA. After retiring in 1981, he remained involved in the Association's activities under his successor and the current director, Edmund J. Sullivan.

"I think it's one of the greatest teaching elements you'll find anywhere in the world," he said.