Story by Amy Turner, Staff writer

Photo by Mackenzie O’Donley/The News

With his earliest classes beginning at 8:30 a.m, by 4:30 p.m. Robert Valentine is ready to head home.

Valentine is a senior lecturer in advertising for the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications. He teaches a wide variety of classes from introductory to upper-level courses.

His students appreciate his dedication to teaching. One such student is Jessica Wellington, senior from St. Louis, Missouri, who is studying advertising.

“Professor Valentine is really a hands-on professor,” Wellington said. “He cares about every single one of his students and wants to make sure they succeed. You can tell without him even saying that.” 

After spending his mornings teaching, Valentine starts research work and grading student assignments.

“By the time I get to noon I’m usually finished with the teaching load, and we can do the research and follow up with the classes. Paper grading, I’m afraid that I assign too many to keep up with.” Valentine said.

He also spends his afternoons working with clients for his advertising campaign class.

After leaving the University, Valentine heads to the small hay farm he calls home.

“I’ll take a look around the farm and see what is going on,” Valentine said. “The only thing we grow besides dogs and older is hay.”

He said they also have a vegetable garden with tomatoes, squash, sweet potatoes, asparagus, beans and peas.

“It gives you something to do, gets you outside otherwise if you are an academic you run a real threat that you will spend most of time indoors and that is in the long run not that good for you,” Valentine said.

After work around the farm is done, Valentine spends time with his wife discussing the day.

“When Mrs. Valentine and I have a sit down and go over the day, what happened and what is coming up, it is almost like a business meeting,” Valentine said. “After that we grab a bite to eat.”

Outside his academic work as a professor, Valentine is also a comedian, doing both solo and duo acts.

“I probably do solo, 15 to 18 shows a year and occasionally Dr. McGaughey and I will do our old two-man stand-up routine,” Valentine said. “Sometimes it gets passed off as a lecture or seminar on communication strategies. In all honesty, we make a few good points about the impact of the digital universe on everyday communication and it is backed up by research.”

Even in his comedy, Valentine still teaches.

“People will remember the joke but with any luck they will remember the point,” Valentine said. “People can remember a funny story or the positive feeling that they had and if you can tie it back to an important thing that you can remember, there you go.”

His students also enjoy his fun style of teaching with humor.

“My favorite thing about Professor Valentine is that he is very funny but also extremely knowledgeable and well-known in the advertising and sales world,” Wellington said.