Who Mentored Tom Brokaw?
Tom Brokaw is the former anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News. He began his career in journalism after graduating from the University of South Dakota in 1962, and has been affiliated with NBC News for 30 years. I never forgot Frances Morrow; she was emblematic of what I think every schoolteacher should be. She spotted me early on and encouraged me to read above my grade level and to be imaginative in class, but at the same time she paid attention to the others that were around me and I was keenly aware of that–that she didn’t just spoil me. But I knew that I had her eye, and it gave me confidence. I went back many, many years later to take her to lunch and thank her for that time, and it was as if we’d never left each other’s side. My parents were critically important to me. They both grew up in a working class environment during the Great Depression. They believed that the greatest rewards for work well done was in a job well done. They had a kind of inherent modesty about
