Thank you, Mr. Warden.

TROY University lost a jewel this weekend, and many others lost a true friend and teacher…the kind that sought his students' success, gave of himself and pushed us to be more than we thought we could.

Mr. Warden was the print journalism professor and adviser to the Tropolitan, TROY’s student newspaper. I liked him from the beginning. He treated us not as students to be looked down upon, but as peers he couldn’t wait to empower. His witty sense of humor, wealth of knowledge about every subject imaginable and obvious care was enough to draw students to him, but that was only scratching the surface.

Though he left this Earth so suddenly, I can’t help but say “thank you” one more time to a professor who made a habit of detecting the least bit of potential and putting it on stage like the next new sensation.

That’s what happened to me. One minute, I was memorizing my AP Stylebook piece by piece in preparation for his next quiz, just your average print journalism student. The next, I was meeting with him about being the next editor of the Trop. I never even saw it coming. I spent the second semester of my junior year learning the ropes, and by the next fall, I began one of my most significant and most difficult learning experiences.

I remember the first Trop page I attempted to lay out. Mr. Warden and I were both just getting our feet wet in InDesign. Of course, neither of us realized every text box we drew had a stroke around it until we saw the printed page…We laughingly referred to it as, “the page o’ boxes.”

Then there was that certain editorial column…the first time I got chewed up and down by an administrator. I cried my eyes out, and Mr. Warden stood up for this clueless college student who was most likely in the wrong.

Oh, and those tiring evenings we called “Trop night.” Stress levels were high, fatigue set in, but when the pizza or McDonald’s arrived, so did the fun for all the students with their noses to the computer screens, praying the “spinning pinwheel of doom” would not pay a visit.

Trop vs. TSU-TV games, cookouts, assignments, and red marks on spreads taped to office walls. So much encouragement, instruction and ideas passed from him to us during those years. He believed in us and refused to let our many mistakes get in the way of the potential he saw. I never witnessed the end of his patience.

Many of us kept in touch with Mr. Warden after graduation. I remember the shock and honor that washed over me when he asked me to speak at the annual journalism symposium just a year later. His faith in me stretched beyond college and helped further my career. I gladly wrote a letter of recommendation for him when he was up for tenure. Even when his reputation was at stake, he seemed to have no doubt we would accomplish what he asked.

It’s far too difficult to say “goodbye” to Christopher Warden. So instead, I’ll join with countless others and just say “thank you.” You are missed already.