Charles Collingwood (journalist)
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Charles Collingwood (June 4, 1917 – October 3, 1985) was a pioneering CBS television newscaster.
Born in Three Rivers, Michigan, Collingwood graduated from Deep Springs College and Cornell University and in 1939 received a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University. Collingwood was a protege of Edward R. Murrow during the Second World War and quickly became known as an unusually urbane and spontaneously eloquent on-air journalist. He was part of a group of distinguished early television journalists that included Walter Cronkite, Eric Sevareid, and Murrow himself.
Collingwood went on to become chief correspondent of CBS and host of its "Eyewitness to History" series. He was a leading figure in CBS's expansion to include international coverage. He reported from the Normandy invasion (at Omaha Beach), Vietnam, the White House, and numerous other sites.
It was Charles Collingwood who was called in to replace Walter Cronkite as CBS' chief reporter in New York when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963. This was after Cronkite broke down with emotion over the assassination. That night, Harry Reasoner was called in to anchor the CBS Evening News.
Collingwood retired in 1982. He died from cancer on October 3, 1985 at the age of 68.
