He was the President of the International Communication Association (1975–1976); the National Communication Association (1989–1990); the Association for Communication Administrators (1996–1997); and the University of Texas at Austin chapter of the honor society of Phi Kappa Phi (2001–2003). He was the Chair of the Department of Speech Communication (1989–1996) and the Department of Communication Studies (2000–2001) at the University of Texas at Austin.
