In Memoriam: Barry L. Sherman

The faculty and staff of the Michael J. Faherty Broadcast Management Laboratory are deeply saddened by the loss of Barry L. Sherman, who played an integral part in shaping the management emphasis of the Department of Telecommunications

As the instructor for the graduate course in telecommuniations management, Sherman along with Nick Trigony, president of Cox Broadcasting, first initiated discussions in the early 1990s for the concept of the Faherty Laboratory. Up until his sudden death on May 2, Sherman continued to be involved with management research and teaching activities of the Faherty Laboratory. Most recently, he helped secure a grant to support the laboratory’s personnel research project involving Federal Communication Commission annual employment reports. Several Faherty Laboratory research associates worked with Sherman on the development of materials to be used in conjunction with his Telecommunications Management textbook.

Sherman, 47, was known best for his leadership of the Peabody Awards, a post he held from 1991 until his sudden death May 2. He’s credited with taking the competition, which draws more than one thousand entries each year, to a new level of national prominence.

In addition to starting a fund-raising campaign that resulted in an endowment for the Peabody program, Sherman arranged popular exhibitions of material from the Peabody archives at the Museum of Radio and Television in New York, the Louis Wolfson II Media History Center in Miami, the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago and the American Film Institute in Los Angeles.

"He possessed a unique ability to work well with academia, the entertainment community and a host of administrative details," said UGA President Michael Adams in a statement released following Sherman’s sudden death. "It’s very difficult to think about the Peabody Awards without Barry Sherman."

It was an opportunity to do research utilizing the extensive Peabody Collection of radio and television shows dating back to 1940, that brought Sherman to the University of Georgia as a telecommunications professor in 1981. Prior to assuming the position at UGA, Sherman taught television history courses at both The Pennsylvania State University and Western Michigan University.

The International Radio and Television Society Foundation named him a Stanton Fellow in 1995 for his "outstanding contribution to electronic media education."

He wrote several widely used textbooks including Telecommunications Management : Broadcasting/Cable and The New Technologies, which is now in its second edition. Sherman also co-authored three editions of Broadcasting/Cable and Beyond : An Introduction to Modern Electronic Media with Dr. Joseph Dominick, who also teaches in the Department of Telecommunications.As Lambdin Kay Professor in the Department of Telecommunications, Sherman has twice has been recognized by the University for outstanding teaching.

J. Thomas Russell, dean of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication called Sherman "a superb scholar and skillful administrator" who will be missed as a colleague, but more importantly as a friend. Sherman and his wife, Candy, have two children, Jessica and Eric.