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Abstract
James C. McCroskey's contributions to instructional communication can best be summarized by tracing his influence on what academics read in the scholarly journals, what they learned through his leadership roles with coauthorship collaborations and mentoring and within academic associations, and his research work shaping several areas within the discipline, particularly classroom excellence. One's legacy in part is determined by what one does and who one influences, but a scholar's legacy more profoundly is determined by how one's actions make a significant, undeniable impact on the trajectory of a discipline's constituents, research, and practices. This article identifies the major areas under the instructional communication umbrella that “Jim” developed, nurtured, and expanded through his research and his direct mentoring relationships and collaborations with others. The unique relationship each coauthor of this article had with McCroskey produces several distinct sections: Historical influences on his initial career, communication constructs and the learning model, his early work on person perception variables (ethos, attraction, homophily), communication and classroom influence (immediacy, power), traits and the communibiological model (communication apprehension, willingness to communicate, argumentativeness), methodological approaches, and disciplinary service and mentoring.