Here’s a look at the life of Emmy award-winning news anchor Tom Brokaw.
Personal:
Birth date: February 6, 1940
Birth place: Webster, South Dakota
Birth name: Thomas John Brokaw
Father: Anthony Orville “Red” Brokaw, construction foreman
Mother: Eugenia “Jean” (Conley) Brokaw, post office clerk
Marriage: Meredith (Auld) Brokaw (August 17, 1962-present)
Children: Sarah, 1970; Andrea, 1968; Jennifer, 1966
Education: Attended University of Iowa in the late 1950s; University of South Dakota, B.A. in political science, 1962
Other Facts:
Nominated for 39 Emmy awards and won 11: 10 competitive and one honorary.
Won two Peabody awards.
Timeline:
1962-1965 – Morning news editor for a television station in Omaha, Nebraska.
1966 – Joins NBC as an anchor and correspondent at an affiliate station in Los Angeles.
1973 – Becomes NBC’s White House correspondent and weekend news anchor.
1976-1982 – Hosts “Today,” taking over for Jim Hartz.
April 1982-December 1, 2004 – Anchors “NBC Nightly News.”
November 30, 1987 – Brokaw’s interview with Mikhail Gorbachev airs. It is the first interview of a Soviet leader by an American journalist.
1988 – Wins an Emmy award as a writer for “Summer Olympics.”
1989 – Wins an Emmy award for Outstanding Interview/Interviewer (Programs) for “Ronald Reagan...An American Success Story.”
1989 – Wins an Emmy award for Outstanding Instant Coverage of a Single News Story (Programs) for “NBC News Special: Crisis in China.”
1989 – Wins an Emmy award for Outstanding General Coverage of a Single Breaking News Story (Segments) for “NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw: Romanian Revolution Coverage.”
1989 – Wins a Peabody award for “To Be an American.”
1993 – Wins an Emmy award for Outstanding Instant Coverage of a Single News Story (Programs) for “NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw: Flood of ’93.”
1997 – Wins an Emmy award for Outstanding General Coverage of a Single Breaking News Story for “NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw: Grand Forks Floods.”
1998 – Best-selling first book “The Greatest Generation” is released.
1999 – Wins an Emmy award for Outstanding Instant Coverage of a News Story – Programs for “Dateline NBC: Killing at Columbine.”
October 12, 2001 – Brokaw’s assistant tests positive for a mild form of cutaneous anthrax, after opening a letter containing a suspicious white powder.
2002 – Wins an Emmy award for Outstanding Interview for “Dateline NBC: America Remembers –9/11 Controllers.”
2003 – Wins a Peabody award for “A Question of Fairness.”
2004 – Wins an Emmy award for Outstanding Live Coverage of a Breaking News Story – Long Form for “NBC News Special: The Death and Funeral of Ronald Wilson Reagan.”
2004 – Receives the lifetime achievement Emmy award.
2004-present – Serves as a special correspondent for NBC.
2006 – Inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.
2008 – Wins an Emmy award for Outstanding Live Coverage of a Breaking News Story – Long Form for “NBC News – Decision 2008.”
June 2008-December 2008 – Following Tim Russert’s death, serves as interim moderator of “Meet the Press.”
September 6, 2012 – Briefly hospitalized in Charlotte, North Carolina. Brokaw later tweets that he “mistakenly took a half dose of Ambien.”
February 11, 2014 – NBC announces Brokaw is being treated for cancerand he was “diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer affecting blood cells in the bone marrow, in August at the Mayo Clinic.”
November 10, 2014 – The White House announces that Brokaw will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
December 21, 2014 – Brokaw releases a statement revealing his cancer is in remission and that he will soon begin a drug regimen in an attempt to keep the cancer from returning.
May 12, 2015 – Brokaw’s book “A Lucky Life Interrupted: A Memoir of Hope” is released.
April 26, 2018 – Former NBC News correspondent Linda Vester accuses Brokaw of harassment in the 1990s, according to reports by the Washington Post and Variety. Brokaw denies the allegations in a statement provided to reporters by NBC.
January 27, 2019 – During an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Brokaw says he thinks Hispanics should “work harder at assimilation” into American culture. Brokaw later tweets that he regrets the comment.
