Terry Boehmker started at Northern Kentucky University in the early 1970s, and his return to the university almost 40 years later completioned a circle that changed the course of his life.
And while he doesn’t want to sound like a “cheerleader,” he couldn’t be happier with his experience at NKU.
“I was the first one in my family to ever go to college,” said Boehmker as he flipped through the aged and yellowed issues of The Northerner. He pointed to story after story he and his fellow staff members had written.
“I was going to major in education and become a teacher,” Boehmker said. “The first week I was here, I wondered what NKU’s paper was all about. So I started writing and got hooked on journalism.”
Boehmker reported on sports for the yearbook while attending Covington Catholic High School. When he came to NKU, he seemed to fall into the sports niche which also followed him throughout his career in journalism.
After winning an award on staff as sports director, Boehmker remembered thinking, “I can do this, it was enough to wet my appetite to keep going.”
Boehmker joined the staff of the Boone County Leader and the Grant County News after graduating.
“I did everything,” Boehmker said. “I did obituaries, murder trials, city council meetings, community papers. It was the best two summers of my life.”
He then went on to be the sports editor for the Kentucky Post for 28 years, his career spanning 1979 to their last copy, printed in December 2007.
According to his daughter Lisa, he still reports on local high school games for KyPost.com.
He arrived back at NKU as the web editor in summer 2008.
Boehmker credited NKU for directing the course and introducing him to the profession that he loves. Boehmker graduated and married in the area and had three children. All of Boehmker’s children have graduated from NKU.
As far as journalism today is concerned, Boehmker says the changes are drastic. With today’s journalism being designed to get it out as quickly as possible, Boehmker says “it’s murder for sports reporters because of the early deadlines and tweeting.”
“Long gone are the days of watching an event and reporting on it,” Boehmker said. He said the feeling now seems to be more that you actually “become part of the event.”
So at the completion of the circle for Boehmker, looking back it was NKU that gave him the opportunity, and it was journalism that gave him a love that turned into a career. Boehmker is looking forward to his future with NKU and seeing other students leave this university to make a difference in the world around them.
“I think NKU is due as much credit for the development and the expansion of Northern Kentucky as anything,” Boehmker said. “And, I guess I am a living example of that.”