Ted Koppel
In March 2012, the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University named Ted Koppel one of the "100 Outstanding Journalists in the United States in the Last 100 Years." It took him fifty of those years to get there.
Ted was the youngest full-time correspondent ever hired by ABC News. By the time he left the network, 42 years later, he was the most honored reporter in the network's history; having received more Overseas Press Club awards than the previous record holder-Edward R. Murrow-two George Polk awards, eight George Foster Peabody awards, eleven DuPont-Columbia awards (television's equivalent to the Pulitzer Prize) and 42 Emmys.
Ted covered Dr. Martin Luther King's march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, he was a war correspondent in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, traveled with President Nixon to China during his historic visit in 1972, and covered Henry Kissinger's shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East. He has covered wars in Bosnia, Congo and Somalia, covered the first Gulf War and was embedded with the 3rd Armored Infantry Division during the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The first presidential campaign that Ted covered was Barry Goldwater's in 1964. The most recent was Barak Obama's in 2008.
On the last day of the Soviet Union, Ted was the only reporter with Mikhail Ghorbachev inside the Kremlin.
On the day of Nelson Mandela's release from prison, Ted interviewed him at his home in Suweto, South Africa.
Ted was the anchor and managing editor of Nightline over a period of 26 years, or roughly 6,000 programs, making him the longest-serving news anchor in broadcast network history.
After leaving ABC, Ted served as managing editor of the Discovery Channel where he produced 20 hours of documentaries which entailed extended visits to China and Iran, and an examination of the global war on terror. He served as contributing news analyst and commentator for BBC America, and as a contributing columnist for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.
These days he works as a special correspondent for NBC's prime time newsmagazine, Rock Center with Brian Williams, and as a commentator for NPR. All of which goes to explain why you should not ask Grace Anne, his wife of 50 years, how she is enjoying Ted’s retirement.
