As kid I had the privilege of serving dozens of masses for Father John B. Bremner the foremost authority on the English language. He lived ay the Rectory in Hills with the parish priest for a few years while furthering his education at Iowa. He taught me not to crack my knuckles while serving his mass with a swift kick to the bells ( the ones you ring at the consecration ) when it hit the wall of the sacristy it shattered into pieces. Lesson learned...
John B. Bremner (December 28, 1920 – July 30, 1987) was an Australian-American journalist and a distinguished professor at the
University of Kansas. A former priest, Bremner worked as an editor for Catholic publications and taught at the
University of San Diego and the
University of Iowa before beginning a 16-year stint at the University of Kansas.
Biography
Bremner was born in Brisbane. He studied at St. Columba's College in Springwood, Australia, at the University for the Propagation of the Faith in Rome, and
All Hallows College in Dublin. Before he earned a graduate degree from the
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Bremner was an ordained Catholic priest.
[1]
Before entering academia, Bremner worked as an editor at the
Florida Catholic and as a columnist at
The Tidings, a newspaper published by the
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
[1] Early in his academic career, he taught at the University of San Diego and the University of Iowa.
In 1965, he completed a doctorate at Iowa.
[2] Beginning in 1969, Bremner was a journalism professor at the
University of Kansas.
[3] Named the Oscar S. Stauffer Distinguished Professor of Journalism in 1977, he taught at Kansas until his December 1985 retirement.
[3]
Standing 6'5" and carrying a reputation for a no-nonsense approach, Bremner was described by one of his colleagues as "a delightful terror to students."
[3] He tried to push his journalism students to be skeptical and to value precise, clear language. "I work on the premise that the language in American newspapers is English – not jargon. I think that newspaper readers want and deserve both good grammar and good taste, along with good information," he said.
[4]
Bremner wrote two books,
Words on Words: A Dictionary for Writers and Others Who Care About Words, and
HTK, which was a headline writing textbook.
[1] He spent more than two years as a consultant for the
Gannett Foundation, teaching newspaper seminars in 44 states.
[2] The
Society of Professional Journalists honored him with the Distinguished Teaching in Journalism Award'
John B. Bremner, a professor of journalism at the University of Kansas and an expert on writing consulted by newspapers across the country, died yesterday of cancer at his home in Ponce Inlet, Fla. He was 66 years old.
With a booming voice, occasionally biting humor and an almost theatrical style, Professor Bremner was a charismatic instructor and a tireless champion of grammar, logic and rhetoric. But his lifelong campaign to sharpen the skills of editors and prospective editors sometimes left him sounding frustrated.
''I have witnessed the steady growth of literary ignorance during a career of more than a third of a century,'' he wrote in 1980. ''Many of my students arrive in my writing and editing classes as college juniors with an almost total ignorance of English grammar and usage and only a smattering of any foreign language. And these are prospective journalists whom one would expect to be less illiterate. But the blame is hardly theirs. It belongs mostly to their teachers.''
Professor Bremner, who was ordained a Catholic priest and later left the priesthood, had rigid standards for editing and expected others to meet them. He assailed such shortcomings as ''hyphenitis,'' the overuse of hyphens, and ''synonymomania,'' a writer's reluctance to use a word more than once in a passage. He also urged editors to be relentlessly skeptical. Seminars for Editors
''Jesus Christ once said, 'Where two or three are gathered together . . .' '' Professor Bremner said in a 1984 seminar for newspaper editors. ''But he couldn't have said precisely that. He didn't speak English. And why would he have said 'gathered together'? When you have 'gathered,' you don't need 'together.' ''
As a newspaper consultant, he traveled across the country, presiding at seminars for editors. He was also the author of two books, ''Words on Words: A Dictionary for Writers and Others Who Care About Words,'' and ''HTK,'' a textbook on headline writing.
Professor Bremner was born in Brisbane, Australia, on Dec. 28, 1920. He attended St. Columba's College in Springwood, Australia, from 1937 to 1939, the University for the Propagation of the Faith in Rome from 1939 to 1942, and All Hallows College in Dublin in 1942 and 1943.
He came to the United States in 1951 to attend the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. While he was a student at Columbia, he lived at St. Malachy's Roman Catholic Church on West 49th Street. Political Columnist
After receiving his master's degree from Columbia in 1952, he became associate editor of the Florida Catholic in St. Augustine, Fla. From 1954 to 1956, he was a political columnist for The Tidings, a religious newspaper in Los Angeles.
In 1969 he moved to the University of Kansas as an associate professor of journalism. He was named director of graduate studies at the School of Journalism in 1971 and became a full professor in 1972. He retired in December 1985.
When his Columbia class was honored by the journalism school's alumni association earlier this year for having endowed a scholarship, Professor Bremner was chosen to accept the award. In his acceptance speech, he pointed out all the errors in spelling, syntax and grammar in the class newsletter.
