Walter Cronkite Biography
Walter Cronkite ( born Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. ) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years (1962–1981). During the heyday of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as “the most trusted man in America” after being so named in an opinion poll. Since 1937 to 1981, he has reported many events including bombings in World War II; the Nuremberg trials; combat in the Vietnam War; the Dawson’s Field hijackings; Watergate; the Iran Hostage Crisis; and the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, civil rights pioneer Martin Luther King Jr., and Beatles musician John Lennon He was also known for his extensive coverage of the U.S. space program, from Project Mercury to the Moon landings to the Space Shuttle. He was the only non-NASA recipient of an Ambassador of Exploration award. Cronkite is well known for his departing catchphrase, “And that’s the way it is,” followed by the date of the broadcast.
Walter Cronkite Age
The American broadcast journalist was born on November 4th, 1916, Saint Joseph, MO. He died at the age of 92 years old on July 17th, 2009 in New York, NY.
Walter Cronkite Height
Have you been wondering what was the American journalist height was, well according to our research, he had a standing height of 6 feet 0 inches.
Walter Cronkite Family
He was born to Helen Lena (née Fritsche) and Dr. Walter Leland Cronkite, who was a dentist. He lived in Kansas City, Missouri, until he was ten when his family moved to Houston, Texas.
Walter Cronkite Wife
He is married to advertising writer ‘Mary Elizabeth Maxwell’ from 1940 until when she died in 2005. They had three children named Nancy, Kathy and Walter 111.
Walter Cronkite Education
He attended elementary school at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School, junior high school at Lanier Junior High School now Lanier Middle School and high school at San Jacinto High School, where he edited the high school newspaper. He was a member of the Boy Scouts. He attended college at the University of Texas at Austin (UT), entering in the Fall term of 1933, where he worked on the Daily Texan and became a member of the Nu chapter of the Chi Phi Fraternity. He also was a member of the Houston chapter of DeMolay, a Masonic fraternal organization for boys. While attending UT, Cronkite had his first taste of performance, appearing in a play with fellow student Eli Wallach. He dropped out in 1935, not returning for the Fall term, in order to concentrate on journalism.
Walter Cronkite Photo
Walter Cronkite Career
He began his distinguished career as a wire service reporter, Cronkite was a longtime champion of journalism values. The Cronkite School proudly carries on that tradition. Born in St. Joseph, Mo., Cronkite began his career as a news writer and editor for Scripps Howard and United Press. He was a correspondent for United Press during World War II and, after the war, reopened news bureaus for UP in Amsterdam and Brussels. Cronkite was the chief correspondent covering the Nuremberg trials and also served as bureau manager in Moscow. In 1950 he joined CBS as a television correspondent. He was named anchor of the “CBS Evening News” in 1962, and the following year launched network television’s first 30-minute newscast.
He reported on the pivotal stories of the ’60s and ’70s — the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the battles over civil rights, the Vietnam War, the Apollo moon landings and the Watergate scandal. Cronkite stepped down from the anchor desk at CBS News in 1981. Three years later, the journalism school at Arizona State University was named in his honor. He returned to campus each year to talk with students and present the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism. Cronkite died in 2009. Cronkite was the recipient of a Peabody Award, the William Allen White Award for Journalistic Merit, an Emmy Award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the George Polk Award and a Gold Medal Award from the International Radio and Television Society.
He was a longtime member of the Society of Professional Journalists. His 1996 autobiography, “A Reporter’s Life,” was a best-seller. An avid sailor, Cronkite wrote the text for “South by Southeast,” a record of his impressions sailing the waterways from the Chesapeake Bay to Key West. A sequel, “North by Northeast,” also was published.
Walter Cronkite Net Worth
He was an American broadcast journalist who had a net worth of $20 million at the time of his death in 2009. Walter Cronkite was born in Saint Joseph, Missouri in November 1916 and passed away in July 2009.
Walter Cronkite Quotes
Walter Cronkite Vietnam
Mark Bowden is clearly correct in attacking the persistent conservative myth that the American press, and Walter Cronkite in particular, were somehow responsible for “losing” the Vietnam War when Walter broadcast his comments on the Tet offensive. He was careful to do so not on his nightly news broadcast, but in a special report. America’s heavy involvement in Vietnam was just three years old, stemming from President Lyndon Johnson’s massive buildup in 1965. One thing Walter understood, from his coverage of World War II, was the difference between winning and not winning a war, and that was what he made clear, saying the Vietnam War could not be won.
After 1968, President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger adopted the war in Vietnam as their own and prosecuted it with increasing ferocity and futility for five more years, and the war continued for another two after the American withdrawal. Far more young Americans died, far, far more Vietnamese civilians died, in those seven years than in the preceding three years. Walter and the press’s continuing coverage of the debacle were not responsible for the inevitable collapse of the American puppet state.
Walter Cronkite Cause Of Death
He died on July 17, 2009, at the age of 92. The reported cause of his death was cerebrovascular disease- a health condition that affects the blood supply to the brain. He died four years after the demise of his beloved wife, Mary Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Maxwell Cronkite who died of cancer on March 15, 2005. The couple married on March 30, 1940, and they had three kids including the American actress and mental health professional, Kathy Cronkite, Nancy Cronkite and Walter Leland (Chip) Cronkite III who is married to popular actress Deborah Rush. He died at his home in New York City and was buried next to his wife at their family cemetery plot in Kansas City, Missouri.
Walter Cronkite Sign Off
Walter Cronkite Awards
Walter Cronkite Asu
The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication is one of the nation’s top journalism schools and is home to Arizona PBS, the largest media outlet operated by a journalism school in the world. Students receive hands-on experiences in Cronkite News, a multiplatform daily news operation with bureaus in Phoenix, Washington, and Los Angeles. With professional programs in digital media, public affairs reporting, broadcast news, digital innovation, public relations, sports reporting, Spanish-language news and more, Cronkite offers real-world education for the digital media world of today and tomorrow.
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