Norman Moyes, 1931-2020

Norman Moyes, a journalism professor emeritus at COM and a former editor at the Boston Herald, passed away this month. He was 89.

Well-regarded in the classroom, Moyes taught for more than 35 years and was a finalist for Boston University’s Metcalf Cup and Prize for Excellence in Teaching. One of his students, Andy Cohen (‘90), who later gained success at Bravo TV and as the executive producer for The Real Housewives franchise, recalled how Moyes taught him to think big.

“I didn’t know I would end up at CBS News for 10 years, meeting all my idols along the way, and become the ringleader of a reality soap opera,” Cohen said in an interview for BU Today in 2012. “Dr. Moyes taught me to just go for it — what’s the worst that can happen? That really opened up a whole thing for me — and I was never short on confidence — where I thought, there’s a door, I want to walk through it.”

Moyes wrote for Life, Time, and Sports Illustrated magazines and is the author of the student textbook, Journalism. He served as a U.S. Army combat photographer, and his photos were collected in the books Battle Eye and American Combat Photography.

Moyes earned his bachelor’s degree from West Liberty University in West Virginia in 1953, earning a place at the school’s “Wall of Honor” for notable alumni in 1992. He received his doctoral degree in mass communication from Syracuse University in 1969.