Thomas John Brokaw is an American television journalist and author, previously working on regularly scheduled news documentaries for the NBC television network, and is the former NBC News anchorman and managing editor of the program NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw. His last broadcast as anchorman was on December 1, 2004, succeeded by Brian Williams in a carefully planned transition. In the later part of Tom Brokaw's tenure, NBC Nightly News became the most watched cable or broadcast news program in the United States. Brokaw also hosted, wrote, and moderated special programs on a wide range of topics. Throughout his career, he has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors.Brokaw serves on the Howard University School of Communications Board of Visitors and on the boards of trustees of the University of South Dakota, the Norton Simon Museum, the American Museum of Natural History and the International Rescue Committee. As well as his television journalism, he has written for periodicals and has authored books. He still works at NBC as a Special Correspondent.
His wife, Meredith Lynn Auld , is a former Miss South Dakota .
Attended The University of Iowa before receiving his BA from The University of South Dakota in Political Science.
His mother is named Jean Brokaw. She died 5 days short of what would have been her 94th birthday.
Friend of Bill France Jr..
Often imitated in the first three seasons of "The Simpsons" for Springfields broadcast reports.
Early in his news anchor career, saved a mans life using the Heimlich maneuver at a restaurant.
Longtime friend of Tim Russert and John Palmer.
Was denied enlistment into the Army because of flat feet. His first choice of service was the Air Force, which he was also declined.
Father, with Meredith Lynn Auld , of daughter Sarah Brokaw.
Release of his book, "The Greatest Generation Speaks: Letters & Reflections".
Release of his book, "Boom! Voices of the Sixties: Personal Recollections of the 60s & Today".
Release of his book, "The Greatest Generation".
Release of his book, "A Long Way From Home: Growing Up in the American Heartland".
Release of his book, "An Album of Memories: Personal Histories From the Greatest Generation".
Introduced spouses-to-be Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver at a charity tennis tournament in 1977.
Inducted into the Nebraska Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame in 1994.
Was diagnosed with bone cancer in August 2013.
Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama 24 November 2014.
Father of Heather Lynn Brokaw born on February 6,1974.
Heroes are people who rise to the occasion and slip quietly away.
Those are the kinds of people that linger in your memory.
You are educated. Yourcertification is in yourdegree. You may think ofit as the ticket to the goodlife. Let me ask you to think of analternative. Think of it as yourticket to change the world.
In your pursuit of your passions, always be young. In your relationship with others, always be grown-up.
You are not expected to know, but you are expected to wish to know.
Seventy-six for an American male was a number on an actuarial chart that includes men who are obese, smokers and inheritors of deadly family genes.
These are the dilemmas for cancer patients. Who and what to believe? A particular treatment is not foolproof, or as many medical experts remind us, is not math, with a fixed and certain outcome.
Is that cancer curable or just treatable.
During World War II, law-abiding Japanese-American citizens were herded into remote internment camps, losing their jobs, businesses and social standing, while an all-Japanese-American division fought heroically in Europe.
You are educated. Your certification is in your degree. You may think of it as the ticket to the good life. Let me ask you to think of an alternative. Think of it as your ticket to change the world.
Our daughters were coming of age during a rising consciousness about gender equality. Throughout their school years - from kindergarten through graduate school, 1972 to 1992 - women were starting to take their places in areas traditionally reserved mostly for men.
Your grandparents came of age in the Great Depression, when everyday life was about deprivation and sacrifice, when the economic conditions of the time were so grave and so unrelenting it would have been easy enough for the American dream to fade away.
If fishing is a religion, fly fishing is high church.
In the spring of 1984, I went to the northwest of France, to Normandy, to prepare an NBC documentary on the 40th anniversary of D-Day.
The greatest generation was formed first by the Great Depression. They shared everything - meals, jobs, clothing.
When he entered the Oval Office - by fate, not by design - Citizen Ford knew that he was not perfect, just as he knew he was not perfect when he left. But what president ever was?,I had this unusual mix of curiosity, the ability to write in ways people understood, and when I appeared, viewers seemed to trust me to get them through some cataclysmic changes.
You convey something that the public either trusts or it does not trust, and it has to do with the content and how you handle the news, but it also just has something to do with your persona.
While Pickstown may not be what it once was, it still is framed by the natural beauty of the ancient river, the sweep of the Great Plains, and the long, unbroken shoreline of the lake behind the dam. It gave me a 19th-century childhood in a modern mid-20th-century town, and for that I will always be grateful.
In your pursuit of your passions, always be young. In your relationship with others, always be grown-up. Set a standard, and stay faithful to it.
You will not solve global climate change by hitting the delete button.
We lost our way and allowed greed and excess to become the twin pillars of too much of the financial culture. We became a society utterly absorbed in consumption and dismissive of moderation.
It is, I believe, the greatest generation any society has ever produced. .
