Christopher Cakebread, 1950-2020

We lost a beloved colleague and friend this week in the passing of Dr. Christopher Cakebread. Here at COM, Chris was a master lecturer who was most recently teaching Introduction to Advertising and Advertising Management, as well as coordinating ad internships. But those words simply do not do justice to the outsize positive impact he had on his students and colleagues. Over the past three decades, Chris calculated that he taught more than 8,000 COM students and created or revised seven of the college’s courses. He also inspired us with his tireless dedication as an instructor, his supportive cheerfulness and kindness, and his generosity and supportiveness in coaching children in youth sports. Chris described his career at BU as having occurred in three stages. First, he originally joined COM in 1988. He taught Introduction to Advertising and Advertising Management, served as a faculty advisor to Adlab, and created the Advertising Media Planning class. At the time, he also worked as a media consultant for account management and media planning. In his second chapter, while continuing full-time as a teacher (even handling four-course loads as needed to support the growing advertising enrollments), he earned his doctorate at the then-BU School of Education, now Wheelock. His dissertation title was An Analysis of Volunteer Coaching in Youth Sports, which won’t surprise anyone who knew him as a great supporter of both youth sports and young people overall. The third step of his BU career began around a decade ago when Chris became the director of the advertising internship program. He continued in his focus on how to help advertising students to be ideally positioned for the professional world. He also spent a few years teaching an Introduction to Advertising Course in Metropolitan College (MET). I know this is such a difficult time for everyone, and this loss is hard to take. As is always true of people we admire and enjoy the company of, I nonetheless feel a sense of keen gratitude that my own brief time here brought me into contact with Chris. His kindness will stay with us always. Mariette DiChristina Dean and Professor of the Practice in Journalism A virtual memorial service is scheduled for Monday, Dec. 14 at 5 pm (ET).