Charles Collingwood, CBS News
John Charles Daly, ABC News
Chet Huntley, NBC News
H. V. Kaltenborn, NBC News and others
Edward P. Morgan, ABC News
Robert Pierpoint, CBS News
David Schoenbrun, CBS News
Howard K. Smith, CBS News and ABC News
Av Westin, CBS News and public broadcasting
Perry Wolff, CBS News
University of Wyoming—Laramie
Reid Collins, CBS News
Hugh Downs, NBC News, ABC News, and public broadcasting
Washington and Lee University—Lexington, Virginia
Roger Mudd, CBS News and NBC News
Washington State University—Pullman
Edward R. Murrow, CBS News
Private Collections
Robert W. Asman—Washington, D.C.
William “Bill” Small—New York
Alfred Robert Hogan—Washington, D.C.
Bernard Shaw—Washington, D.C.
Ron Bonn—San Diego
Don Michel—Anna, Illinois
Robert Feder—Highland Park, Illinois
Michael Freedman—Washington, D.C.
Mervin Block—New York
John Laurence—Haslemere, United Kingdom
Morley Safer—New York
Lew Wood—Los Angeles
Brian Williams—New York
Sandy Socolow—New York
Alan Weisman—New York
Tom Johnson—Atlanta
Kay Barnes—Kansas City
Linda Ann Mason—New York
Christiane Amanpour—New York
BIOGRAPHICAL GLOSSARY
Adler, Marlene: Cronkite’s chief of staff from 1991 until his death in 2009. She managed his post–CBS News career and was his adviser, confidante, and friend.
Aldrin, Buzz (1930– ): NASA lunar module pilot of Apollo 11. In 1969 he became the second man to walk on the Moon after following Neil Armstrong out of the Eagle module to collect lunar samples.
Alter, Jonathan (1957– ): Editor of Newsweek magazine from 1983 to 2011. After interviewing Cronkite for Rolling Stone in 1987, Alter became good friends with the anchorman and his wife.
Anders, William (1933– ): NASA lunar module pilot of Apollo 8. He flew, along with Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, around the Moon ten times on Christmas Eve 1968.
Arledge, Roone (1931–2002): Chairman of ABC News from 1977 until his retirement in 1988. Arledge created 20/20 and World News Tonight for the network and was responsible for wooing David Brinkley from NBC to ABC in 1981.
Armstrong, Neil (1930– ): NASA commander of Apollo 11. In 1969 he became the first man to walk on the Moon. After stepping out of the Eagle and onto the Moon, he uttered the famous line “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Ashford, Mike (1938– ): Longtime owner of McGarvey’s Saloon and Oyster Bar in Annapolis, Maryland, and Cronkite’s frequent sailing companion from the 1980s onward.
Asman, Bob (1926– ): Producer of CBS’s The Twentieth Century from 1957 to 1961 and producer of special-events coverage for NBC News until his retirement in 1993.
Barnes, Ben (1938– ): Former Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives from 1965 to 1969, lieutenant governor of Texas from 1969 to 1973, and lifelong friend of Walter Cronkite.
Barnes, Kay (1938– ): Walter Cronkite’s cousin. Cronkite helped Barnes campaign to become the first female mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, in 1999. She won the election and served as mayor from 1999 to 2007.
Bleckman, Izzy: CBS cameraman who worked with Cronkite for years. He accompanied Cronkite on his 1972 trip to China (as part of the Nixon administration’s press pool) and worked on Universe. Bleckman also served as Charles Kuralt’s cameraman for the entirety of his “On the Road” run.
Benjamin, Burton (1917–1988): Longtime writer, director, and producer for CBS News, where he worked for twenty-nine years until his retirement in 1985. He served as executive producer of the CBS Evening News from 1975 to 1978, collaborated with Walter Cronkite on The Twentieth Century, and was tasked with the internal investigation of the CBS Reports documentary “The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception” in 1983.
Bernstein, Carl (1944– ): Journalist who, along with Bob Woodward, did the most important news reporting on Watergate for The Washington Post. Cronkite relied on Bernstein and Woodward’s investigative work during Watergate for his own CBS Evening News broadcasts.
Bibb, Porter (1937– ): Former White House correspondent for Newsweek and the first publisher of Rolling Stone magazine.
Bliss, Ed (1912–2002): A second-generation member of the Murrow Boys and news editor for Edward R. Murrow, Fred W. Friendly, and Walter Cronkite during Cronkite’s twenty-five-year career at CBS.
Bonn, Ron (1930– ): Journalist who served as senior producer of the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite for five years (most notably during its coverage of the Apollo missions and the 1968 Chicago convention protests) and helped to create Universe. Bonn worked for NBC News for twelve years and helped produce the Cronkite reports The Drug Dilemma: War or Peace? and Family Matters: Or Does It? for the Discovery Channel.
Bradley, Ed (1941–2006): CBS correspondent from 1967 until his death in 2006. He was hired by Bill Small to work at CBS’s WTOP in Washington, D.C., in 1974 and reported for 60 Minutes for over two decades (beginning when Dan Rather left the program to anchor the CBS Evening News in 1981).
Braver, Rita (1948– ): CBS News correspondent hired by CBS’s Washington, D.C., bureau in 1972 and a friend of Walter Cronkite. She, along with producer Bud Benjamin, accompanied Cronkite to a memorable 1977 inaugural ball in which he forgot his tickets.
Brinkley, David (1920–2003): Newscaster for NBC and ABC from 1943 to 1997. Brinkley cohosted The Huntley-Brinkley Report on NBC from 1956 until 1970.
Brokaw, Tom (1940– ): Newscaster for NBC who hosted the Today show from 1976 to 1982 and the NBC Nightly News from 1982 to 2004.
Brown, Aaron (1948– ): ABC correspondent from 1991 to 1999 and host of CNN’s NewsNight with Aaron Brown from 2001 to 2005. He is best known for his coverage of the September 11 attacks, which occurred on his first day on air at CNN (and which Cronkite watched from Rome as the events unfolded).
Buchanan, Pat (1938– ): Opposition researcher and speechwriter for the Nixon administration from 1966 to 1974. In 1973, Pat Buchanan’s brother, Henry, sued CBS News for libel after the CBS Evening News aired a story accusing him of laundering money for the Nixon administration.
Buffett, Jimmy (1946– ): Famous singer-songwriter and close friend of Cronkite’s. He sang and played the ukulele for Cronkite in his final days and performed at his Lincoln Center memorial.
Carleton, Don (1947– ): Executive director of the University of Texas at Austin’s Dolph Briscoe Center for American History (the site of Cronkite’s archive) and author of Conversations with Cronkite. He conducted a sixty-hour oral history interview with Cronkite in the 1990s that formed the basis of Conversations as well as Cronkite’s memoir, A Reporter’s Life.
Chung, Connie (1946– ): CBS correspondent hired by Bill Small to work in the Washington bureau in 1971. She left CBS in 1983 to become an anchor on NBC, but returned to CBS in 1989 to co-anchor the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather until 1995.
Collingwood, Charles (1917–1985): CBS correspondent and host of Eyewitness to History. Collingwood was one of the Murrow Boys and the first U.S. reporter allowed into North Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
Collins, Michael (1930– ): NASA command module pilot of Apollo 11. In 1969 he orbited the Moon in Columbia while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made the first-ever landing on the surface of the Moon.
Colson, Charles (1931– ): Special counsel to Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1973. Colson is
heard frequently on the Nixon White House tapes, discussing Cronkite’s coverage of the president and the Vietnam War. Colson served a prison sentence in 1974 for obstruction of justice in the Daniel Ellsberg case and went on to found the Prison Fellowship Ministries in 1976.
Cooper, Gordon (1927–2004): One of seven astronauts selected for NASA’s Project Mercury. Cooper piloted Mercury-Atlas 9 in 1963, spending more than thirty-four hours in space and orbiting Earth twenty-two times.
Couric, Katie (1957– ): Broadcast journalist who co-anchored the Today show with Matt Lauer from 1991 to 2006 and often contributed to Dateline NBC. She replaced Dan Rather as the anchor of the CBS Evening News in 2006, but left the program in 2011 to develop her own daytime talk show for ABC.
Cronkite, Betsy Maxwell (1916–2005): Cronkite’s wife, a graduate of the University of Missouri and a former journalist at the Kansas City Journal-Post. Betsy Maxwell and Walter Cronkite met in 1936 while both were working at KCMO, and they wed in 1940. They were married for almost sixty-five years and had three children together.
Cronkite, Helen Fritsche (1892–1993): Walter Cronkite’s mother. Walter maintained a very close relationship with his mother throughout his life, especially after she filed for a divorce from his father in 1932.
Cronkite, Mary Kathleen (1950– ): Walter Cronkite’s second child, known as Kathy. An actress and author, she married lawyer Bill Ikard in 1980. The couple have two children, William Ikard and Jack Ikard.
Cronkite, Nancy Elizabeth (1948– ): Walter Cronkite’s first child. A yoga teacher.
Cronkite, Walter Sr. (1893–1973): Walter Cronkite’s father. Walter Cronkite Sr., a dentist, and Helen Fritsche were married in 1915. They divorced in 1932 as a result of his alcoholism. Walter Cronkite’s relationship with his father was strained for many years following his parents’ divorce.
Cronkite, Walter III (1957– ): Walter Cronkite’s son, known as Chip. He and actress Deborah Rush married in 1985 and have two sons together, Walter Cronkite IV and Peter Cronkite. He was a founding producer of Cronkite, Ward and started Cronkite Productions.
Cronkite, Walter IV (1988– ): Son of Walter Cronkite III and Deborah Rush and grandson of legendary newsman Walter Cronkite. He was hired by CBS’s Washington, D.C., bureau as a broadcast associate in 2011.
Edwards, Douglas (1917–1990): First American network news anchor, anchoring Douglas Edwards with the News (later known as the CBS Evening News) from 1948 to 1962. Edwards was Walter Cronkite’s predecessor and eventually moved back to CBS Radio.
Ellsberg, Daniel (1931– ): Rand Corporation analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers to various newspapers in 1971. Ellsberg sat down with Cronkite for a CBS News exclusive interview in June of that year, a move that was met with harsh criticism from the Nixon administration.
Fager, Jeffrey (1954– ): Longtime CBS News executive. Fager served as the executive producer of the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather from 1996 to 1998 and then as executive producer of 60 Minutes from 2004 to 2011, when he was named the first ever chairman of CBS News.
Feder, Robert (1956– ): Founder of the Walter Cronkite Fan Club, who began a lifelong friendship with Cronkite. From 1980 to 2008, Feder was the TV/radio columnist at The Chicago Sun-Times. He is now the media critic for TimeOut Chicaago.
Freedman, Mike (1952– ): Former reporter for CBS World News Round-Up and general manager of CBS Radio News. As general manager of CBS Radio News he produced the thirty-part series “Walter Cronkite’s Postscripts to the 20th Century” and suggested that Cronkite announce the news of the Clinton impeachment verdict on CBS Radio in 1998.
Friendly, Fred (1915–1998): CBS News president from 1964 to 1966. Friendly and Edward R. Murrow created the documentary television program See It Now. He advanced public broadcasting, was integral to the establishment of PBS, and resigned from CBS in 1966 when the network replaced U.S. Senate hearings about the Vietnam War with an episode of I Love Lucy.
Gralnick, Jeff (1939–2011): Journalist who held major roles at CBS, NBC, and ABC. He was a founding producer of CBS’s 60 Minutes, reinvented the NBC Nightly News, and produced news coverage for all NASA missions through Apollo 11.
Hart, Mickey (1943– ): Drummer for the Grateful Dead from 1967 to 1971 and 1974 to 1995. Hart and Cronkite became close friends after Hart was assigned to score a documentary Cronkite was working on about the America’s Cup. Hart performed, along with Jimmy Buffett, at Cronkite’s memorial service at Lincoln Center in 2009.
Hewitt, Don (1922–2009): CBS television executive and producer of 60 Minutes. He set an important precedent in 1960 by producing the first televised presidential debates.
Hottelet, Richard (1917– ): Correspondent for United Press during World War II and one of the Murrow Boys. Murrow hired Hottelet to work at CBS in 1944. He remained with the network for forty-one years.
Huntley, Chet (1911–1974): Newscaster for NBC from 1955 to 1970. He hosted The Huntley-Brinkley Report from 1956 until his retirement in 1970.
Johnson, Tom (1941– ): Executive vice president of LBJ’s Texas Broadcast Corporation who allowed Cronkite to break the story of President Johnson’s death in 1973. After LBJ’s death, he served as president and publisher of the Los Angeles Times and then as president of CNN from 1990 to 2001.
Kalischer, Peter (1915–1991): CBS correspondent from 1957 to 1978. Kalischer won the Overseas Press Club award in 1963 for his coverage of the military coup that killed Ngo Dinh Diem, the president of South Vietnam.
Kuralt, Charles (1934–1997): CBS writer from 1957 to 1959 and correspondent from 1959 until his retirement in 1994. His is best known for his “On the Road” segments, which appeared on the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite beginning in 1967, and as the first anchor of CBS Sunday Morning, a position he held from 1979 to 1994.
Laurence, John (1940– ): CBS News correspondent who covered the Vietnam War from 1965 to 1970. Cronkite regarded Laurence, who wrote The Cat from Hué, about his experiences in Southeast Asia, as one of the best reporters of the conflict.
Leiser, Ernest (1921–2002): Reporter and producer for CBS who helped the network in its expansion to television. He was key in selecting Cronkite as anchor for the CBS Evening News.
Leonard, Bill (1916-1994): CBS executive who oversaw the network’s 1964 election coverage as head of a specially created Elections Unit before serving as president of CBS News from 1979 to 1982.
LeSueur, Larry (1909–2003): Correspondent for United Press during much of the 1930s and a CBS correspondent from 1939 until 1963. As one of the Murrow Boys, LeSueur covered the major events of World War II from Europe.
Lippmann, Walter (1889–1974): Journalist and author whose nationally syndicated column “Today and Tomorrow” won two Pulitzer Prizes. Cronkite read Lippmann’s work while living in Houston in the 1930s and interviewed him in 1961 for a CBS Reports special.
Lumet, Sidney (1924–2011): Academy Award–winning director of Network, one of Cronkite’s favorite movies. Lumet worked with Cronkite on You Are There, the historical reenactment TV series, from 1953 to 1957.
Manning, Gordon (1917–2006): Writer for Newsweek and later executive for CBS News from 1964 to 1974, where he was responsible for the Tiffany Network’s reporting of Watergate, Vietnam, and Nixon’s 1972 trip to China.
Midgley, Leslie (1915–2002): Executive producer of the CBS Evening News from 1967 to 1972. He produced many other CBS programs and won multiple Peabody and Emmy awards for his work.
Moonves, Les (1949– ): Longtime CBS executive who became president of CBS Entertainment in 1995, president and CEO of CBS Television from 1998 to 2003, and chairman and CEO of CBS Corporation in 2003. His friendship with Cronkite ended the anchorman’s years of relative inactivity at CBS beginning in 1995.
Mudd, Roger (1928– ): Correspondent for CBS from 1961 to 1980. After Dan Rather was chosen to replace Walter Cronkite on the CBS Evening News
, he left to join NBC News. During his tenure with NBC, Mudd served as co-anchor of the NBC Nightly News and co-moderator of Meet the Press.
Murrow, Edward R. (1908–1965): American broadcast journalist with CBS who came to prominence during World War II. He is noted within the field for his honesty and integrity and was instrumental in the censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Paley, William “Bill” (1901–1990): Developer of the CBS radio and television networks. Starting with a collection of sixteen affiliates, he built CBS into a network that could compete with NBC by creating an independent news division in 1934, hiring Edward R. Murrow as director of talks in 1935, and promoting Frank Stanton to president of CBS in 1946.
Pierpoint, Robert (1925–2011): CBS News White House correspondent who covered six administrations (Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter) and was a part of the second generation of Murrow Boys.
Polster, Sandor M. (1942– ): Reporter for the AP and The New York Post from 1967 to 1973, writer for CBS Evening News from 1973 to 1985, news editor for NBC Nightly News from 1986 to 1993, visiting lecturer to Colby College in 2004, and student adviser at Bowdoin College from 1999 to 2010.
Rather, Dan (1931– ): CBS News correspondent from 1963 to 2006. He succeeded Walter Cronkite as anchor of the CBS Evening News in 1981, a position he held until 2005.
Rooney, Andy (1919–2011): Writer for Stars and Stripes during World War II and longtime CBS News commentator. Rooney became famous for his “A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney” segment on 60 Minutes and was Cronkite’s frequent tennis partner and longtime friend.
Safer, Morley (1931– ): CBS News correspondent since 1964. He angered the Johnson administration with his broadcast about a search-and-destroy mission carried out by U.S. Marines on the village of Cam Ne and became notable throughout the conflict in Vietnam for his war reporting. Morley has hosted 60 Minutes since 1970, when he replaced Harry Reasoner.
Salant, Richard “Dick” (1914–1993): CBS executive from 1952 to 1979. As president of CBS’s news division, he built the CBS Evening News into a vehicle that could compete with the wildly popular Huntley-Brinkley Report, primarily by replacing Douglas Edwards with Cronkite in 1962.
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