Maybe the ultimate Scott Bridge story is how he arranged for Megan Yates ’16 to finish her degree after the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation hired her full time at the beginning of her senior year.

Or perhaps the best story is the time he gave Teresa Mask ’93 a copy of the book I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America with this inscription: “I fully expect to see your picture and an article about you in a similar book someday.”

“To say that he had that much confidence that my life was going to amount to something worthy to be read about, it was like, ‘Wow,'” says Mask, who spent two decades as a newspaper reporter and editor and is now Senior Public Relations Manager for AT&T in Michigan. “That was encouragement beyond belief.”

But it could be that the greatest Scott Bridge story is the one about Ari Kasle ’14.

“Couldn’t stand him when he was a freshman,” Bridge says, “but I saw some good things when he was a sophomore and we had some talks about his big, obnoxious mouth overshadowing his creativity, intelligence, and his good heart. When I think about what Ari was like when he started at Butler versus the Ari who graduated four years later, it reminds me why I love my job. Very, very proud of him.”

Kasle, now an Associate Producer at Emmis Communication in Indianapolis, says: “He’s gone to bat for me so many times. I developed a reputation early on at Butler and he could have thrown me to the scrap heap if he wanted to. But he took me under his wing and he said, ‘I believe in you.’ I’ll be forever in debt to him for that.”

Bridge, who started teaching in Broadcast/Electronic Journalism at Butler in 1988, has helped send hundreds of future broadcasters, teachers, publicists—and even a couple of current members of Butler’s Board of Trustees—into the world. Probably every one of them can recall some example of his kindness and his guidance.

Stephanie (Hoop) Callihan ’89, now a Vice President for Entercom and mother of Butler first-year student Kate Callihan: “He was a great mentor even then to all of us. He would say, ‘Here’s what you have to do to find a job,’ and was very realistic about how hard it was. He really helped and mentored you about what your next, best steps were and how you needed to go about doing it.”

Hayley Ross ’17, now a Production Assistant on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House: “He pushed me to do everything that I did, and he’s 100 percent the reason that I graduated with a journalism degree. I definitely would not be where I am if he had not pushed me to be my best.”

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Bridge ’82, MS ’91 worked in radio and TV for six years after earning his bachelor’s degree. Even then, the media was shrinking. In 1988, when the radio station he worked for cut most of its newsroom—though not his position—he started looking around.

At the time, Butler advertised a full-time staff position that entailed serving as sports and news director for WAJC-FM, the campus radio station, and teaching one class.

“It was a 10 percent pay cut,” Bridge says, laughing, “and I was not their first choice.”

He took the job and found his calling. “When I started teaching and working with the students, that was it,” he says. “It was being able to help students and help them realize whatever their goals and dreams were. Just seeing that light bulb go on, being able to help them with their careers.”

That first year in the classroom, Bridge was 27 but looked 22. He would often be mistaken for a student. He started wearing a jacket and tie to distinguish himself. But students called him Scott because “Mr. Bridge didn’t feel right.”

He stayed in that staff position for five years. In 1993, when Butler sold the radio station, Bridge was named sports and news director for the campus TV station. By then, he was teaching two classes.

He modeled his approach to teaching after B.J. Goodwin, one of his high school teachers in Lebanon, Indiana, who nurtured and encouraged him.

His philosophy: “Students just need somebody to affirm to them that they’re doing good work. They already know when they’re screwing up. Very few of them need somebody to tell them that they’ve screwed up. But they do need somebody to tell them, ‘Yeah, you’re doing something good.'”

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Bridge’s job at Butler lasted until spring 1995, and he taught one class a semester till spring 1997. Then he took time off to be Mr. Mom while his wife, Maryann, a Pathologist, worked. Still, Bridge served on the Alumni Board and kept his men’s basketball tickets.

“Butler was still part of my life,” he says. “But not as strong.”

When his children got a little older, Bridge started thinking about returning to work. At a basketball game in 2006, he ran into a Butler faculty member who asked if he’d be interested in teaching again. He was.

Bridge wondered, though, if he would be relevant. Technology had changed, and “I didn’t want to seem like some old fogey.” To prepare, he took a computer literacy class at Franklin College. He also took classes in Microsoft programs at Indiana Business College in Columbus, where he lives.

He served as an Adjunct Professor for a couple of years until 2010, when the department, faced with a last-minute departure, hired him full time as an Instructor of Electronic Journalism. He still holds that title, and in 2014 he added the role of Internship Director for the College of Communication, which allows him to work with students in all Communication majors.

“Scott transformed the College of Communication internship program upon becoming its director in January 2014, raising its profile and scope while tripling the number of student interns benefiting from this program every year,” says former College of Communication Dean Gary Edgerton, who calls Bridge “the epitome of a student-centered faculty member.”

These days, Bridge still wears a jacket and tie every day. Students called him Professor Bridge, but his approach to working with students remains the same.

“Students wonder when Scott sleeps since they receive numerous emails from him about internship opportunities in the middle of the night,” says Suzanne Reading, Associate Dean of the College of Communication. “When I talk with students at new-student registration, many of them know Scott already and have been in contact with him several times prior to coming to Butler.”

At the end of the inscription, Bridge wrote in the book he gave Teresa Mask said, “Good luck and know that you can count on me if you ever need a helping hand.”

Mask and multiple generations of Butler students know that he means it.