J-School mourns death of patron Nan Tucker McEvoy

Nan Tucker McEvoy funded the complete renovation of the J-School’s TV and documentary filmmaking labs in the late 1990s with a $1 million donation. The new labs were named in her honor and opened in 2001. Ms. McEvoy, who was 95, passed away in San Francisco on March 26.

“When I arrived here to teach, the television facilities were like a worn-out submarine. Editing cubicles were crammed in between the heating ducts in the basement,” says Professor Jon Else. “Then Nan stepped up with very generous support and singlehandedly set us on a course toward a grown-up facility designed by renowned architect Marcie Wong. Today, our Television Lab is an absolute jewel, with state of the art, climate-controlled, sound-isolated editing suites and broadcast facilities. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

Ms. McEvoy’s generosity helped to usher in a new era of award-winning TV and documentary work at the J-School by providing state-of-the-art broadcast technology in a newsroom environment. One of the first successful projects in the lab was Dan Krauss’ film, “The Death of Kevin Carter,” which was nominated for the Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject in 2006.

“Although Nan Tucker McEvoy’s generous gift preceded my tenure here as dean, I’m saddened by her loss and thankful that her extraordinary legacy as a pioneering woman of American publishing lives on,” said J-School Dean Edward Wasserman. “I’m reminded of it daily, every time I pass below the signage in her name into the broadcast laboratories where the careers of dozens of this country’s top documentary and television producers have been nurtured, thanks to the workspace Nan was prescient enough to give us.”

The lab also houses the North Gate Studios, which provide professional services comprising live and recorded interviews for television broadcasters worldwide, from PBS to the BBC, pictured with the signature backdrop of the UC campus’ Campanile tower.

A number of J-School alumni made successful TV segments and documentary films in the labs when they were students. Among those works are “Danny and the Scatman,” by Peter Nicks; “Robofly,” a 2001 documentary by Jason Spingarn-Koff, which won a student Emmy; “Past Their Prime,” by Becca Friedman, winner of the National Geographic WILD Student Filmmaker award; and the collaborative TV segment “US Military Abroad,” produced by the student-run News21 and aired on CNN during primetime in 2006.

Born Phyllis Ann Tucker, McEvoy was the granddaughter of M.H. de Young, who founded the San Francisco Chronicle and its former parent company, Chronicle Publishing. McEvoy was destined for a life as a wealthy heiress but instead insisted on a career as a journalist. She worked for the Chronicle as a reporter before going on to write for the New York Herald Tribune and the Washington Post. She married publishing executive Dennis McEvoy in 1948 and lived in Washington, D.C., for 40 years, a period in which she became heavily involved in politics.

After hearing that the Chronicle was having financial trouble in the 1990s, Ms. McEvoy fought to keep the company alive. She was eventually forced off the board just before her cousins sold the business to the Hearst Corp. She became a director at Chronicle Publishing and decided to go into olive ranching, buying an estate in Petaluma, where she ran one of California’s largest fine olive oil companies.

She was an avid philanthropist and supported a host of causes, including a number of fine and performing arts organizations in the Bay Area and across the country.

PHOTO: The front entrance of the J-school’s Nan Tucker McEvoy Broadcast Media Lab.”