Walter Cronkite Remembered

When I was a child and into my teenage years, Walter Cronkite ruled the news airways. There was something about his easy manner as he reported the news that made me feel as if he was family. But he didn't just report the news, he narrated it and brought it home to us, straight into our living rooms. From the tragedy of President Kennedy's assassination to the triumph of man's first walk on the moon, Cronkite shared with us happenings from around the world and beyond. Aptly dubbed "a giant of journalism" by Brett Baier of Fox News, Cronkite was the first anchorman in history as no newscaster before him had been labeled an anchor. The title fit in more ways than one as, even in reporting tragic world events, this man was an anchor, a rock of strength, through it all. Connie Chung, former commentator of the CBS Evening News, says, "He was my hero, my role model. My family and I would sit down and watch him every night."

Although Cronkite retired from the airwaves in 1981, he did not retire from life and continued to travel and speak to a variety of audiences. If you've ever seen an interview with Walter Cronkite, you've seen a humble man who was in a business filled with others who often sported incredibly large egos. Yet Walter was who he was and never tried to create a false image of himself as many in his field had done and still do today.

As a public speaker, I admire his style of speaking and his appeal to his listeners. He had an easy way about him, a genuineness. According to one of his younger peers, Barbara Walters, "He was a very beloved person."

In an age of biased news casting, it would be refreshing to have an anchorman like Walter Cronkite take the reigns again. Somehow, I wish my own children and their generation could have grown up listening to the "Most Trusted Man in America" every evening after dinner as I did.

Walter Cronkite, dead at age 92.

And that's the way it is.