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BROKAW RECOUNTS HIS LIFE AS A NEWSMAN AND STORYTELLER
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Tom Brokaw |
February 11, 2008—Former “NBC Nightly News” anchor and lifelong newsman Tom Brokaw regaled the audience at Monday’s general session with stories of success, grief, and triumph.
Brokaw recounted the lives of those who have made a lasting impression—friends like former anchor Walter Cronkite, President Ronald Reagan, and California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. “I’ve known him since before he was ‘Arnold,’” Brokaw said, describing how he introduced Schwarzenegger to his wife, Maria Shriver, at a cocktail party in New York City. He has been friends with the couple ever since.
Brokaw also had the privilege of conducting President Reagan’s last interview in the Oval Office, after covering his rise from a Hollywood actor to commander in chief. After the interview, Brokaw said, Reagan asked him to take a walk in the Rose Garden. The president told Brokaw that the two had come a long way since first meeting when Reagan was governor of California and Brokaw was a freshman reporter. “He said, ‘It worked out pretty well for the both of us, didn’t it?’” Brokaw recounted.
In a tribute to U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, Brokaw urged the audience to “re-enlist as citizens” and support the families of soldiers in their communities. Said Brokaw, “I see it as my life’s work to remind myself, my family, and friends … that we have no greater obligation than the obligation we have to each other and to succeeding generations.”
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