Atop a small pile of neatly stacked newspapers in Brian Hlavaty’s office is the April 2011 issue of Golf Magazine.

He grabs the magazine and flips through it quickly, searching each page.

He stops suddenly and points to a misspelled headline, “Devolop a Go-to Drive.”

“That is the third large-print mistake I have found in this magazine in the past few years,” he said.

To his students, he is Brian, and to some who have only seen him around, he is long-time friend of and look-alike to the journalism program director Garry Gilbert. Rarely seen without his white MacBook computer and AP stylebook, he can catch an error in even the most famous of publications.

A visiting instructor at Oakland University, Hlavaty makes an 80-mile commute from Saginaw to Rochester at least two days a week to teach newswriting and an OU News Bureau class. He is also OU’s journalism internship program director.

When he is not at OU, Hlavaty works about 10 hours per week as the adviser to the student newspaper at Saginaw Valley State University.

“It’s a wonderful juggling act,” he said.

Even with a full schedule, he is available to answer questions and offer support to his students, according to senior journalism major, Emily Weitz.

“Although he is busy, he is one of the most supportive professors,” she said. “Oftentimes, his emails are like instant messages — you can always count on him to get back to you quickly.”

But teaching was not the always the plan for Hlavaty. Originally from Warren, he realized he had an interest in writing when he became a part of Warren Fitzgerald High School’s student newspaper.

He attended Macomb Community College as a business major and journalism minor. His junior year of college, he transferred to Central Michigan University where he flipped his major to journalism with a minor in business after a professor helped him discover his passion.

“I had an instructor for newswriting who just lit a fire under me,” he said. “The way she taught it was fun, and I realized I wasn’t half bad at it … at some point in your life, light bulbs go on and that was a light bulb moment for me.”

In the years before he came to OU in August of 2009, Hlavaty worked as a reporter for newspapers in Cadillac, Mount Pleasant and Kalispell, Mont. and ended up at the Saginaw News, where he stayed for about 30 years, working his way up to news editor.

The paper began to downsize and Gilbert saw an opportunity for Hlavaty at OU.

“I had a very soft landing and I’m very happy to be here. This is a lot more fun than what I did before,” Hlavaty said.

Junior journalism major Audrey Ryskamp is in the News Bureau class with Hlavaty, and she said she enjoys having him as an instructor.

“He is a great instructor who not only gives his students good criticism, but also helps them get ready to deal with situations that happen in the real world,” she said.

Hlavaty said he is happy where he is at now and has no plans to leave OU anytime soon.

“I love what I’m doing here,” he said. “I just want to stay and keep doing this.”