Walter Cronkite: Our Unforgettable Anchorman – 1916-2009

Tonight the voice of the greatest anchorman in television from the sixties to the eighties went silent. It was on this Friday night, July 17, 2009 that Walter Cronkite died at his home in Manhattan with his family around him. The legendary television journalist reached the age of 92. Cerebral vascular disease was the cause of his death.

He was “the” anchorman reporting the news of the assassinations of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr and Bobby Kennedy. He was there for the events of Watergate, the Vietnam War, the landing on the moon and other notable stories. He delivered such news with an eloquence seldom seen from anchormen, this fatherly figure who became the “most trusted man in America”.

His 1968 editorial commented that the U.S. was facing a stalemate in Vietnam which became

a turning point in America’s outlook on the war. He brokered the historic 1977 meeting that took Egyptian Anwar Sadat to Jerusalem that resulted in a breakthrough peace treaty for Egypt and Israel. He was there when Neil Armstrong uttered the words, “One small step for man, one great leap for mankind” as man made his first walk on our solitary satellite. He was America’s favorite newsman, narrating the United States’ journey through some of the most earthshaking events in our history.

He had a believable aura about him but he was always determined to be professional and impartial in his judgements on the air. When he was was off camera–his stamina and admittedly demanding ways earned him the nickname for some critics, “Old Ironpants”. But to his viewers he was “Uncle Walter”, the news anchor they had faith in through out his great career. We undoubtedly lost the greatest anchorman of our times.