| Tom Brokaw  AKA Thomas John Brokaw
Born: 6-Feb-1940
Birthplace: Webster, SD
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Journalist Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Former anchor, NBC Nightly News Tom Brokaw dropped out of the University of Iowa, where he says he majored in "beer and co-eds", but got his BA in political science at the University of South Dakota. As a disk jockey in Yankton, SD, he interviewed Miss South Dakota on the air, then made a pass at her when the interview was over -- unaware that the microphone was still live. They've been married since 1962.
Brokaw's first TV job came in 1960, doing weathercasts in Sioux City, where he was quickly promoted to news reader and station identifications. He worked on the morning news in Omaha, then anchored the 11 PM news in Atlanta, before joining NBC as a staff reporter in 1966. He's been sitting in NBC's Nightly News anchor chair since 1982, first as co-anchor with Roger Mudd, and solo since 1983. It's been suggested that the airhead golden boy newscaster played by William Hurt in Broadcast News was based on Tom Brokaw.
In a 1996 "open mike" moment, satellite viewers heard Brokaw dissing Dan Rather during a commercial break. Brokaw said that Donald Rumsfeld, while working in the Nixon White House, often fed Rather phony news. Rather, said Brokaw, was "factually wrong a lot of the time because he was Rummy's vessel". Brokaw later apologized, of course.
Father: Anthony Brokaw ("Red")
Mother: Jean Brokaw
Wife: Meredith Lynn Auld Brokaw (Miss South Dakota, m. 1962, three daughters)
Daughter: Jennifer Jean Brokaw
Daughter: Andrea Brooks Brokaw
Daughter: Sarah Auld Brokaw
High School: Yankton High Senior High School, Yankton, SD
University: BA Political Science, University of South Dakota
President's Commission on White House Fellowships
American Academy of Arts and Sciences 2005
Committee to Protect Journalists Board of Directors
International Rescue Committee Co-Chair, Board of Directors
Phi Beta Kappa Society
Robin Hood Foundation Board of Directors
Endorsement of Microsoft Windows Server 2008
Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame
Peabody for To Be An American
Grand Marshal of the Tournament of Roses 2001
Wedding: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver (1986)
Funeral: Katharine Graham (2001)
Roast: Tom Brokaw (2002)
Funeral: Gerald Ford (2007)
Funeral: Tim Russert (2008)
Funeral: Nora Ephron (2012)
Risk Factors: Marijuana, Multiple Myeloma
TELEVISION
NBC Nightly News Anchor (1983-2004)
Meet the Press Moderator (2008)
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Hey, Boo: Harper Lee and "To Kill a Mockingbird" (7-Nov-2010) · Himself
Run for Your Life (Apr-2008) · Himself
An Unlikely Weapon (18-Feb-2008) · Himself
TV Junkie (3-Aug-2006) · Himself
Author of books:
The Greatest Generation (1998)
The Greatest Generation Speaks: Letters and Reflections (1999)
An Album of Memories: Personal Histories from the Greatest Generation (2001, nonfiction)
A Long Way From Home: Growing Up in the American Heartland (2002, memoir)
Boom! Voices of the Sixties: Personal Reflections on the '60s and Today (2007, nonfiction)
The Time of Our Lives: A Conversation About America: Who We Are, Where We've Been, and Where We Need to Go Now, to Recapture the American Dream (2011, nonfiction)
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