By Dina Weinstein

Wirt joined VCU in 1987 and retired in 2006 as professor emeritus in the Richard T. Robertson School of Media and Culture. In 1994, she established Capital News Service, the hands-on newswriting class that provides coverage of Virginia government, politics and courts to news outlets around the state. She also spearheaded the launch of the VCU Student Media Center. And in the classroom, her impact could be just as significant.

“Wilma was supremely dedicated to her students, nurturing their passion for journalism,” Jeff South, associate professor emeritus at the Robertson School, said via email. “A taskmaster and sharp-eyed editor, she instilled in students a penchant for accuracy and an unyielding work ethic.”

According to Wirt’s obituary, she earned her bachelor’s degree from Oklahoma State University and her master’s from the University of Texas at Austin. Her journalism career began as a reporter and night copy editor for The Washington Post. Before joining the VCU faculty, Wirt served as a journalism professor at Temple Junior College and the University of Texas at El Paso, where she chaired the Department of Mass Communication for six years.

Creating VCU’s Capital News Service gave journalism students a real-world experience, South said, with Wirt often pouring her own time and money into the project. He recalled that when the Columbine High School massacre took place in 1999, Wirt bought plane tickets for a group of students to fly to Colorado to cover the tragedy.

“Wilma’s students loved her, and she was honored by the journalism profession as well,” South said. That recognition was reflected by her induction into the Robertson School’s Virginia Communications Hall of Fame, the National Journalism Education Association Hall of Fame and the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association Hall of Fame and her George Mason Award in 2015 from the Virginia Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

“No single person has had a greater impact on how I work and think of work than Wilma Wirt,” Greg Weatherford wrote in a social media post when he learned of her death.

Weatherford, a 1995 VCU mass communications graduate, is a longtime Richmond journalist who now serves as deputy director of the Information Resources Division at the State Corporation Commission. His LinkedIn profile notes his status as the first reporter for Capital News Service, and he describes himself as a “recruit for the Wilma Wirt Journalism Army.”

“She saw something in me I had no idea existed. And she spent years nurturing, urging and guiding those qualities in me, using every tool in the book,” Weatherford wrote. “Wilma worked with countless journalism students like me at VCU. She fought for our right to speak the truth without regard to power. She slammed us when we screwed up. She was shameless in her use of manipulation to get us students where we needed to go. She could be prickly. She could be sentimental. She was deeply, deeply proud. But not too proud to say she loved us. We loved her.”

“She insisted on exactitude,” recalled Chris Dovi, a 1997 mass communications graduate whose career has included journalism roles as well as advocacy for computer science education. “She found ways to make me care about being careful. She tore me down and built me back up. Tough love. That’s what she gave.”

When Dovi taught journalism for several years at VCU, in the same classroom where Wirt had molded so many students, he said he tried to honor her legacy and run his class the same way she did.

Craig Carper, a senior communications specialist with Dominion Energy who earned his journalism degree in 2006, was a reporter with Capital News Service. With that foundation forged by Wirt, he advanced in roles at WCVE, as a producer, political reporter and news director.

“I probably wouldn’t have pursued a career in journalism without her, and I certainly wouldn’t have gotten as far as I did,” Carper said. “She taught me and countless other VCU students over the years the fundamentals of journalism and masterclass lessons beyond that.”

He added that “she was a kind, caring person who took a genuine interest in her students’ lives. … More importantly, she was one of the classiest people I’ve ever met. She led by example and taught us all about professionalism, about being ethical and how to be good, compassionate citizens.”

Wirt also elevated numerous students into teaching and leadership positions at VCU and elsewhere.

Bonnie Newman Davis, now editor-at-large at Charlottesville Tomorrow, was working at the Richmond News Leader in 1988 and started covering City Hall. She took Wirt’s Urban Affairs Reporting course to strengthen her abilities to cover government, and with Wirt’s encouragement, Newman Davis became an adjunct professor at VCU in 1994 and full-time faculty member in 2004.

“Wilma is responsible for me teaching as an associate professor of journalism at VCU for seven years. Her impact and reach are broad, and I’m grateful that she was one of my mentors,” she said.

In addition to Wirt’s commitment to her students and colleagues, Newman Davis recalled Wirt’s commitment to detail.

“Wilma was a stickler for AP style and prickly about the proper use of ‘held’ — ‘babies are held, events take place,’” Newman Davis recounted. “I’m pretty certain that she wrote an AP style guide for VCU students and faculty that was specific to Richmond and Virginia government. I still have many of the teaching tools that she shared with me. I have used her tools and techniques at each university in which I taught journalism.”