Who Mentored Walter Cronkite?
The late Walter Cronkite covered virtually every major news event during his more than 60 years in journalism–having spent the majority of those years affiliated with CBS News. He was anchorman and managing editor of the CBS Evening News for nearly 19 years, and was a special correspondent for CBS News since 1981. He has been called the “most trusted man in America.” I went to San Jacinto High School in Houston, Texas, in the 1930s, and was fortunate to come in contact with a man who would inspire me to become a career print and broadcast journalist. Fred Birney was a pioneer in high school journalism. Very few high schools at that time even taught journalism, and many schools didn’t have their own student newspaper. Fred talked the Houston Board of Education into allowing him to teach a journalism class once a week at three local high schools, one of which was San Jacinto. He was a newspaperman of the old school and taught us a great deal about reporting and writing. He also became a
