Cronkite: my first interview

My first interview as a newly minted reporter was with Walter Cronkite when I was so inexperienced as a journalist I did not know what an interview was.  After graduating from college I spent a year working for the editors of Look Magazine but not getting a chance to write.  I was advised by the Managing Editor, Pat Carbine, that to get a big time New York or Washington reporting job that I had to go out into the country somewhere and build a portfolio. I did just that.  By pure happenstance I got hired as the feature editor of the newspaper in Aspen Colorado at the end of a ski vacation there.  I had gone to pick up my clothes at the cleaners and sadly informed the lady behind the counter that I was going to return to New York the next day and look for a job as a journalist.  "Why dont you stick around," she said. "I'm having drinks with the editor of the paper in about ten minutes."  An hour later I was hired to be the new feature editor of the paper.  I started the next morning.  "Go over to the Aspen Inn and interview Walter Cronkite," I was instructed.  "He's in town."  Dutifully I went.  When I got to his hotel I called upstairs on the house phone, suddenly panicked that I had no idea what an interview was.  After two rings, the big man himself answered.  I explained that I was a new reporter at the local paper and had been assigned to interview him.  "Come on up," he said.

Now I was perspiring and petrified.  When I knocked on the door there was no time to collect myself.  Walter Cronkite opened the door and beckoned me to enter.  I had to confess immediately to this icon of the media universe that I was brand new at this profession and had no idea how to do an interview.  The superstar CBS anchor could not have been more pleasant or understanding.  "Come on out here on the balcony and we'll just talk.  All you have to do is ask me questions."  "Well, what are you doing in Aspen," I asked thinking it to be a stupid question.  "Perfect," he said.  "I'm here to dedicate the new library you're looking at right over there." He explained that he had been coming to Aspen for years and was a familiar figure to the locals so they picked him to cut the ribbon.  An hour later we were still talking about his experiences as a journalist and skiier and I had my story.  As I left Walter Cronkite that afternoon I felt newly baptized into the industry by the best of the best and touched that this extraordinary man who was the most trusted journalist in America had taken time to teach me his trade in such a kind way. "Keep in touch," he said shaking my hand.  I'll look forward to watching the trajectory of your career.  As the years went on and I was assigned by the New York Times or Women's Wear Daily to cover a presidential campaign or candidate, or to cover the State Department for CNN,  I frequently crossed paths with Cronkite.  I felt that my mentor and role model was proud that my first ever interview was with him and that I had gone on into a lifetime of journalistic successes thanks to the confidence he had given me that day overlooking Aspen Mountain.  We developed a lifelong friendship that involved dinners and family weddings and my total devotion.  I will never forget Walter Cronkite,  a giant of a human being and one of the kindest men I have ever met.  My prayers are with his family.