Jean B. Daugherty
Honorary
1996 Letterwinner of Distinction
1996 Letterwinner of Distinction
Jean Daugherty began her career in broadcasting in 1952 at WTVH, then WHEN-TV. Within five years came the first of a string of honors, recognition from The Post Standard as one of the paper’s Women of Achievement, the first ever from the field of communications. In 1965, Jean received the Robert Eastman Award as the Outstanding Woman Broadcaster in the Northeast United States. In 1967, she received the Iris Award from the National Safety Council for making the most significant contributions to safety on the national television scene.
In 1968, SU’s Newhouse School presented Jean with its Outstanding Alumni Award. In 1975, she became the first broadcaster to receive Colgate University’s Civic Award. The Post Standard named her All-Time Women of Achievement in 1984and in 1987, SU presented her with a Distinguished Alumni Award. She also holds an honorary doctor of letters degree from Indian University of Pennsylvania, and earned the Mayor’s Achievement Award in 1987. Year 1989 brought special honors from the Girl Scouts, the Updowntowners and Catholic Charities. On March 17, 1990, she proudly marched down Salina Street as comarshal of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
Jean’s work as a writer, producer and director has earned her many other honors for documentaries and for the children’s television show she created – The Magic Toy Shop. One of the longest running shows in TV history (1955-82), Jean wrote and produced each of the show’s 6,500 episodes.
In her 42 years at WTVH, Jean has written and produced more than 15,000 programs, the equivalent of 100 books of epic length, a world’s record. In between, she taught at SU’s College for Human development and has devoted much time to fund-raising and support for social service agencies.
Jean hold a bachelor’s degree in education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree in communications from Syracuse. She was host, writer, and producer of the award-winning documentary series, Something Special. On December 31, 1994, Jean retired as the community affairs director of WTVH.
Jean developed a great pride in football after her brothers Hugh and Joe received football scholarships to SU. Hugh “Duffy” Daugherty was a football co-captain in 1939. In the 1950’s Duffy was a highly successful head coach at Michigan State where he won coach of the year honors for his national champion team. Jean has been a loyal contributor to Orange Pack and Orange Plus-truly an avid SUper fan.
