CARBONDALE - Thomas Jennings Pace Jr., professor emeritus of Communication Studies at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, died June 18, 2024, at his home in Turlock, California, surrounded by family.He was born on June 22, 1929, in Wichita Falls, Texas, and grew up in neighboring Iowa Park, a small rural town in North Texas. His father, Thomas J. Pace Sr., was a prominent pioneer of Wichita County, and his mother, Perle Ernestine Burkhead Pace, was a teacher in the Iowa Park Schools. In his youth, Tom worked on the family farm, and developed his leadership and speaking skills in various Methodist church groups.These experiences led him to enroll at Southwestern University, a Methodist University, in Georgetown, Texas, where he received his bachelor (1949) and master (1953) degrees in Speech and Theater. He earned his PhD in 1957 from the University of Denver in Rhetoric and Public Address after successfully defending his dissertation "Dynamics Found in Small Group Discussion." A

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