Remembering Cronkite
The history
As anchor of the “CBS Evening News,” Walter Cronkite set the gold standard for broadcast journalism, shepherding the nation through President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the Vietnam War and Armstrong’s walk on the moon. The Cronkite School was named in honor in1984.
The relationship started when Tom Chauncey, the longtime owner of the CBS affiliate in Phoenix and a leading supporter of journalism education at ASU, contacted his old friend in an effort to help the program. An endowment on behalf of the program was soon established in Cronkite’s name, and the school was named in honor of the former CBS anchor.
Cronkite became intimately involved with ASU, advising the journalism school’s leadership, meeting with students and faculty, and traveling to Arizona each year to personally give the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism to a media leader.
Walter Cronkite died on July 17, 2009, but his legacy lives on in journalism and in the Cronkite School, where students learn time-honored ethics and news values with a spirit and passion that would make him proud.
Remembering Cronkite’s legacy
Walter Cronkite’s friends and colleagues at the school that proudly bears his name remember the man who set the standard for trusted journalism in America and helped build a national journalism program here at Arizona State University.
The following statements are in response to the death of Cronkite.
“Walter Cronkite’s legacy will be experienced for years to come through the ASU school that bears his name. Students who learn the craft of journalism at the university are held to the same basic tenets that Cronkite exemplified throughout his career – accuracy, timeliness and fairness. Our heartfelt condolences go out to his family and friends at this difficult time.
Walter Cronkite was and will always be journalism’s gold standard … We lost today not only a great journalist, but a great man and a dear friend.
In the news: ASU Flags Lowered to Half-Staff to Honor Cronkite