John Marlin Shipman Jr.

John Marlin Shipman Jr, 76 of Jonesboro, died on December 22, 2022, at Arkansas Continued Care.  He was born in Memphis, Tennessee on August 29, 1946, to John Marlin Shipman Sr. and Mary Wellman Shipman.  He served his country honorably in the US Army National Guard during the Vietnam War.  He was preceded in death by his parents.

He graduated from West Memphis High School in 1964, and earned his BS degree from Arkansas State University in 1969.  While at ASU, he was the Captain of the Golf Team.  He went to Penn State and received his Master’s Degree and finished with his Doctorate from the University of Missouri. He was a professor of Journalism at Arkansas State University from 1981 until his retirement in 2007.  His work career was a reporter/sports editor of the West Memphis Evening Times; editor at the Stanberry, Missouri, Headlight; managing editor of the Fort Collins Coloradian, and the Santa Monica California Evening Outlook. He received the Pioneer Award from the South West Education Council; society of Professional Journalism - 1997 Distinguished Teaching Award and the 2002 Research in Journalism Award; Distinguished Faculty for ASU in the First Century; and he was president of the ASU Faculty Senate and the advisor for the ASU Herald.  He was the Author of “The Penalty is Death”.

Survivors include his wife of 54 years, Donna Reichen Shipman, of the home; daughter, Sarah Jordan and husband Matt of Fairfax, Virginia; brother, James Shipman of Vacaville, California; sister, Carolyn Baker of Poplar Bluff, Missouri; grandchildren, Katherine Jordan and Nicholas Jordan.

A visitation service will from 1:00 until 2:30 PM, on Thursday, December 29, 2022, at Emerson Funeral Home, under the direction of Emerson Funeral Home. All other services are private.

For lasting memorials, please consider St. Judes Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place Memphis, Tennessee, 38105, USA / donors@stjude.org ; or Trout Unlimited, PO Box 98166, Washington, DC 20090; or Food Bank of Northeast Arkansas • P.O. Box 2097, Jonesboro, Arkansas, 72402.  To sign an online guestbook, go to emersonfuneralhome.com.