Tom Brokaw

Tom Brokaw

Brokaw with his Peabody Award, May 2014
Born Thomas John Brokaw
February 6, 1940
Webster, South Dakota, U.S.
Education University of South Dakota
Occupation Television journalist, author
Years active 1966–present
Notable credit(s) Today co-anchor
(1976–1981)
NBC Nightly News anchor
(1982–2004)
NBC News Special Correspondent
(2004–present)
Meet the Press moderator
(2008)[1]
Spouse(s) Meredith Lynn Auld (1962–present)
Children Jennifer Jean Brokaw
Andrea Brooks Simon
Sarah Auld Brokaw

Thomas John "Tom" Brokaw (/ˈbroʊkɔː/; born February 6, 1940)[2] is an American television journalist and author best known as the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News from 1982 to 2004. He is the author of The Greatest Generation (1998) and other books and the recipient of numerous awards and honors. He is the only person to host all three major NBC News programs: The Today Show, NBC Nightly News, and, briefly, Meet the Press. He now serves as a Special Correspondent for NBC News and works on documentaries for other outlets.

Early life

Tom Brokaw (left) greeting the 20,000th visitor to the Gavins Point Dam in 1958. Brokaw was a tour guide there.

Brokaw was born in Webster, South Dakota, the son of Eugenia "Jean" (nee Conley, November 13, 1917 - November 9, 2011),[3] who worked in sales and as a post-office clerk, and Anthony Orville "Red" Brokaw (1912-1982).[4] He was the eldest of their three sons and was named after his maternal great-grandfather, Thomas Conley. His father was a descendant of Huguenot immigrants Bourgon and Catherine (nee Le Fèvre) Broucard, and his mother was Irish-American.[5] His paternal great-grandfather, Richard P. Brokaw, founded the town of Bristol, South Dakota, and the Brokaw House, a small hotel and the first structure in Bristol.[6]

Brokaw's father was a construction foreman for the Army Corps of Engineers. He worked at the Black Hills Ordnance Depot (BHOD) and helped construct Fort Randall Dam; his job often required the family to resettle during Brokaw's early childhood.[7] The Brokaws lived for short periods in Bristol, Igloo (the small residential community of the BHOD), and Pickstown, before settling in Yankton, where Brokaw attended high school.[5][7]

As a high school student attending Yankton Senior High School,[8] Brokaw was governor of South Dakota American Legion Boys State, and in that capacity he accompanied then South Dakota Governor Joe Foss to New York City for a joint appearance on a TV game show. It was to be the beginning of a long relationship with Foss, whom Brokaw would later feature in his book about World War II veterans, The Greatest Generation. Brokaw also became an Advisory Board member of the Joe Foss Institute.[9]

Tom Brokaw matriculated at the University of Iowa in Iowa City but dropped out after a year as he apparently failed to keep up in his studies, in his words majoring in "beer and co-eds"; in tribute to his fun loving freshman year the Airliner Bar has named a booth in his honor. He received his B.A. degree in Political Science from the University of South Dakota in Vermillion in 1964.[8]

Broadcasting career

Early years

Brokaw's television career began at KTIV in Sioux City, Iowa followed by stints at KMTV in Omaha, Nebraska, and WSB-TV in Atlanta, Georgia,[10] In 1966, he joined NBC News, reporting from California and anchoring the 11 p.m. news for KNBC-TV in Los Angeles. In 1973, NBC made Brokaw White House correspondent, covering the Watergate scandal, and anchor of the Saturday editions of Nightly News. He became host of NBC's Today Show in 1976 and remained in the job until 1982.

Nightly News

Brokaw preparing for a live broadcast in the aftermath of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

On April 5, 1982, Brokaw began co-anchoring NBC Nightly News from New York with Roger Mudd in Washington. After a year, NBC News president Reuven Frank concluded that the dual-anchor program was not working and selected Brokaw to be sole anchor.[11] The NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw commenced on September 5, 1983. Among other news items, he covered the Challenger disaster, EDSA Revolution, Loma Prieta earthquake, fall of the Berlin Wall and Hurricane Andrew.

As anchor, Brokaw conducted the first one-on-one American television interviews with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Russian President Vladimir Putin. He was the only network anchor in Berlin when the Berlin Wall fell. He and Katie Couric hosted a prime-time newsmagazine, Now, that aired from 1993–94 before being folded into the multi-night Dateline NBC program.

Brokaw with Vladimir Putin before an interview on 2 June 2000.

On September 11, 2001, Brokaw joined Katie Couric and Matt Lauer around 9:30 a.m., following the live attack on the South Tower of the World Trade Center, and continued to anchor all day, until after midnight. Following the collapse of the second tower, Brokaw observed:

“ This is war. This is a declaration and an execution of an attack on the United States."[12][13] ”

He continued to anchor coverage to midnight on the following two days. Later that month, a letter containing anthrax was addressed to him as part of the 2001 anthrax attacks. Brokaw was not harmed, but two NBC News employees were infected. In 2008, he testified before the Commission on Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism about the anthrax attacks, publicly discussing his experiences for the first time in a detailed, day-by-day account.[14]

In 2002, NBC announced that Brokaw would retire as anchor of the NBC Nightly News following the 2004 Presidential election, to be succeeded by Brian Williams. Brokaw would remain with NBC News in a part-time capacity through 2014, serving as an analyst and anchoring and producing documentary programs. Brokaw closed his final Nightly News broadcast in front of 15.7 million viewers on NBC on December 1, 2004, by saying:

“ That's Nightly News for this Wednesday night. I'm Tom Brokaw. You'll see Brian Williams here tomorrow night; and I'll see you along the way. ”

By the end of his time as Nightly News anchor, Brokaw was regarded as the most popular news personality in the United States. Nightly News had moved into first place in the Nielsen ratings in late 1996[15] and held on to the spot for the remainder of Brokaw's tenure on the program, placing him ahead of ABC's Peter Jennings and World News Tonight, and CBS's Dan Rather and the CBS Evening News

Brokaw in 2006 speaking about the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Along with Jennings and Rather, Brokaw helped usher in the era of the TV news anchor as a lavishly compensated, globe-trotting star in the 1980s. The magnitude of a news event could be measured by whether Brokaw and his counterparts on the other two networks showed up on the scene. Brokaw's retirement in December 2004, followed by Rather's ouster from the CBS Evening News in March 2005, and Jennings' death in August 2005, brought that era to a close.

After Nightly News

After leaving the anchor chair, Brokaw remained at NBC as Special Correspondent, providing periodic reports for Nightly News. He served as an NBC analyst during the 2008 presidential election campaign[16] and moderated the second presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain at Belmont University. He reported documentaries for the Discovery Channel and the History Channel and in 2006 delivered one of the eulogies during the state funeral of former President Gerald R. Ford.

On June 13, 2008, when NBC interrupted its regular programming to announce the sudden death of NBC News Washington Bureau Chief and Meet the Press moderator Tim Russert, Brokaw served as the announcer. A week later, NBC announced that Brokaw would serve as host of Meet the Press on an interim basis. He was succeeded by David Gregory in December 2008.

Brokaw serves on the board of directors of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and the International Rescue Committee. He is also a member of the Howard University School of Communications Board of Visitors and a trustee of the University of South Dakota, the Norton Simon Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, and the International Rescue Committee. He also provides the voiceover for a University of Iowa advertisement that airs on television during Iowa Hawkeyes athletic events.[17]

On May 29, 2011, Brokaw began hosting The Boys in the Hall, a baseball documentary series for Fox Sports Net.[18]

In December 2012, Brokaw starred in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's annual Christmas concert, with live audiences of 84,000 and a nationally televised broadcast titled Home for the Holidays.

Personal life

Since 1962, Brokaw has been married to Meredith Lynn Auld, who is an author and former Miss South Dakota. They have three daughters, Jennifer Jean, Andrea Brooks and Sarah Auld, and five grandchildren. He and his wife spend considerable time at their ranch on the West Boulder River near Livingston, Montana, which they bought in 1989.[19][20]

On September 6, 2012, Brokaw was hospitalized after appearing on MSNBC's Morning Joe. He later tweeted that he was "All well" and explained his illness as having accidentally taken half a dose of Ambien in the morning.[21]

Brokaw was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer affecting blood cells in the bone marrow, in August 2013 at the Mayo Clinic.[22] Brokaw and his physicians are "very encouraged with his progress."[23] He has continued to work for NBC throughout his treatments. On December 21, 2014, he announced that his cancer is in full remission.[24][25][26]

Career timeline

Books

Brokaw signing a book in Seattle in 2007

Awards

Public and industry awards

Honorary degrees

References

  1. ↑ "Tom Brokaw – Council on Foreign Relations". Retrieved 2008-02-07.
  2. ↑ "Tom Brokaw Biography: News Anchor, Journalist (1940–)". Biography.com (A&E Networks). Retrieved June 25, 2013.
  3. ↑ "Eugenia Conley Brokaw Obituary".
  4. ↑ "Tom Brokaw Biography (1940–)". Filmreference.com. Retrieved 2011-11-27.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 McGuire, John M. (November 6, 2002). "From Yankton to Yankee Town". St. Louis Post-Dispatch, p. E1.
  6. ↑ Brokaw, Tom. (2003). A Long Way from Home: Growing Up in the American Heartland in the Forties and Fifties, p. 9. New York: Random House.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Jordan, Larry (February 1995). "Tom Brokaw: A Heavyweight in a World of Lightweights". Midwest Today.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Tom Brokaw – Biography". Yahoo! TV. Retrieved 2008-08-19.
  9. ↑ Joe Foss Institute http://www.joefossinstitute.org/about-jfi/our-leadership/. Retrieved July 21, 2014. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  10. ↑ Wishart, David J. (2004). Encyclopedia of the Great Plains. University of Nebraska Press. p. 507. ISBN 9780803247871.
  11. ↑ Frank, Reuven. Out of Thin Air: The Brief Wonderful Life of Network News (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991), pp. 383–84.
  12. ↑ Owen, Rob (September 12, 2001). "Tuned In: This was reality TV at its most horrific". Post-gazette.com. Retrieved 2008-11-04.
  13. ↑ "NBC World Trade Center Part 12: YouTube (accessed 2009-11-22)". Youtube.com. 2007-11-21. Retrieved 2011-11-27.
  14. ↑ , c-spanvideo.org; accessed February 19, 2014.
  15. ↑ "CBS tops Nielsens 2nd week in row". SFGate.com (San Francisco Examiner). 1997-03-12.
  16. ↑ "Inside Cable News". Insidecable.blogsome.com. Retrieved 2008-11-04.
  17. ↑ "The University of Iowa, Tom Brokaw, and because each student (and young) with their research should Alt". Online University. Retrieved 2010-03-16.
  18. ↑ "Fox Sports Net Orders ‘The Boys in the Hall’ Baseball Series, Hosted by Tom Brokaw". Media Bistro. Retrieved 2011-07-04.
  19. ↑ OKeefe, Eric (May 1, 2007). "The Tom Brokaw Interview". Land Report. Retrieved August 7, 2011.
  20. ↑ Ronnow, Karin (September 17, 2006). "'Big Sky Cooking'". Montana Standard. Retrieved August 7, 2011.
  21. ↑ "UPDATE: Tom Brokaw Says He's Fine After Hospital Run". Deadline. Retrieved September 6, 2012.
  22. ↑ http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/tom-brokaw-diagnosed-cancer-prognosis-encouraging-n27871
  23. ↑ Byers, Dylan (February 11, 2014). "NBC's Tom Brokaw diagnosed with cancer". Politico. Retrieved February 12, 2014.
  24. ↑ http://www.inquisitr.com/1695027/tom-brokaw-nbc-nightly-news-anchor-multiple-myeloma-cancer-remission/
  25. ↑ Duke, Alan (February 11, 2014). "Tom Brokaw reveals cancer diagnosis; doctors are 'optimistic'". CNN. Retrieved February 12, 2014.
  26. ↑ Winograd, David (February 11, 2014). "Tom Brokaw Reveals He Has Cancer". Time. Retrieved February 12, 2014.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 27.3 27.4 27.5 27.6 27.7 "Tom Brokaw - Nightly News with Brian Williams - MSNBC.com". Msnbc.msn.com. June 27, 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-04.
  28. ↑ 48th Annual Peabody Awards, May 1990.
  29. ↑ "Paul White Award". Radio Television Digital News Association. Retrieved 2014-05-27.
  30. ↑ 62nd Annual Peabody Awards, May 2004.
  31. ↑ "Brokaw to Vanderbilt grads: Become the next 'greatest generation'".
  32. ↑ 73rd Annual Peabody Awards, May 2014.
  33. ↑ "President Obama Announces the Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipients". The White House. November 10, 2014. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  34. ↑ "One Hundred Sixty Fourth Annual Commencement".
  35. ↑ "Tom Brokaw to speak at MSU Feb. 28". Montana State University. Retrieved September 4, 2011.

External links

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Media offices
Preceded by
Barbara Walters and Jim Hartz		 Today Co-Anchor with Jane Pauley
June 7, 1976 – December 31, 1981 		Succeeded by
Jane Pauley and Bryant Gumbel
Preceded by
John Chancellor		 NBC Nightly News Anchor
April 5, 1982 – December 1, 2004
(co-anchor with Roger Mudd until September 5, 1983) 		Succeeded by
Brian Williams
Preceded by
Tim Russert		 Meet the Press Moderator
June 29, 2008 – December 7, 2008 		Succeeded by
David Gregory