Status: Former CNN news anchor, reporter from 1980 to 2009.

 

DOB: September 24, 1945  In: Childress, TX

 

Hobbies/Interests: “Scuba diving. Horseback riding. Golf. Running tractors on the farm – we’ve got a horse farm in (Sussex County) New Jersey. I enjoy getting out, cutting hay and playing farmer on the weekends during the summer.”

 

Childhood Heroes:  “Gene Autry, John Paul Jones and Huckleberry Finn.”

 

Favorite Movies:  “Casablanca, Dr. Strangelove, Jumpin’ Jack Flash and Raiders of the Lost Ark…I’m a simple-minded son of a gun [laughs].”

 

Favorite TV Shows:  “Gunsmoke, Peter Gunn, Murder She Wrote and 60 Minutes.”

 

Musical Tastes:  “Jimmy Buffet, The Rolling Stones and Waylon Jennings.”

 

Childhood Dream:  “Initially a fireman and cowboy. Later, a professional quarterback for the Baltimore Colts [laughs].”

 

Favorite Meal:  “My mother-in-law’s enchiladas.”

 

Favorite Ice Cream Flavor:  “Chocolate.”

 

First Job:  “As a kid, bagging potatoes in the fields. Or baling hay on the farm in Idaho.”

 

Early Career Memory:  “It’s tough enough learning to be a reporter, but for one of my first assignments I was handed a Bell & Howell movie camera and asked to film a meeting of Cesar Chavez with the United Farm Workers’ Union in Mexico. It was the first time I had ever used a movie camera, so I rushed back with the story and what I thought was the film of the story. The film turned out to be all black, so my career as a photographer ended rather abruptly.”

 

Greatest Career Moment:  “The Chinese have a saying…’If you love your work, you’ll never have a job.’ It’s been a career of many years and a lot of moments. I’ve enjoyed nearly all of them.”

 

People Qualities Most Admired:  “Courage to go against the grain and not follow the herd, with character, capacity and talent.”

 

Education: Harvard.