Walter Cronkite
News Anchor/Journalist/Author

Walter Cronkite is the former CBS Evening New anchorman, whose commentary defined issues and events in America for almost two decades. Mr. Cronkite, whom a major poll once named the “most trusted figure” in American public life, often saw every nuance in his nightly newscasts scrutinized by politicians, intellectuals, and fellow journalists for clues to the thinking of mainstream America. In contrast, Mr. Cronkite viewed himself as a working journalist, epitomized by his title of “managing editor” of the CBS Evening News. His credo, adopted from his days as a wire service reporter, was to get the story “fast, accurate, and unbiased.” His trademark exit line was “and that’s the way it is.”

Born in St. Joseph, Missouri, Mr. Cronkite began his career as a news writer and editor for Scripps-Howard and United Press. He was a war correspondent for United Press, and after the war, reopened news bureaus for UP in Amsterdam and Brussels. Mr. 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.
Mr. Cronkite has received a Peabody Award, the William White Award for Journalistic Merit, an Emmy Award from the Academy of Television Arts and
Sciences, the George Polk Journalism Award, and a Gold Medal from the International Radio and Television Society. He is a long time member of the Society of Professional Journalists.

His 1996 autobiography, A Reporter’s Life, was a bestseller. An avid sailor, Mr. Cronkite wrote the text for South by Southeast, a record of his impressions sailing the waterways from Chesapeake Bay to Key West. A sequel, North by Northeast, was also published.