Jack J. Valenti (’46, Honorary ’02)
Legacy Preserved – UH School of Communication
Honors Jack J. Valenti

The UH School of Communication has been renamed to The Jack J. Valenti School of Communication in honor of late UH alumnus Jack Valenti (’46, Honorary ’02), who served as adviser to President Lyndon Johnson and head of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for nearly four decades.

“This is an important step to acknowledge Valenti’s longstanding association with the University of Houston and the city of Houston,” said Welcome W. Wilson Sr., chairman of the UH System Board of Regents. “Jack always seemed to know what to say and the best way to say it. What, then, could be a better description of communications?”

Valenti, who died last year at the age of 85, worked on The Daily Cougar student newspaper and served as president of the Student Association and as vice chairman of Frontier Fiesta committee during his time at the university.

Following graduation, Valenti headed the UH alumni organization and was appointed to the first Board of Regents when UH became a state university in 1963. He was honored by UH with its Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1952 and with an honorary doctorate in 2002. In his memoir This Time, This Place, Valenti wrote, “The day I enrolled in the University of Houston was the most exalted day of my life ... If there had been no UH, I don’t know what turn my life would have taken.”

Valenti was also the author of five books, numerous essays and articles in premier newspapers and magazines, and nearly a decade’s worth of Saturday columns for the Houston Post.

“Renaming the school in honor of Jack Valenti will serve as an inspiration to generations of students as they follow their own path to success,” said John Antel, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.