Andy Rooney — who turns 91 today — is in demand these days. Rooney, a Colgate University alum, will be honored at a February 9 alumni “Tribute and Toast” in New York City. Expected attendees include fellow ‘Gate grads such as 60 Minutes EP Jeff Fager, Rooney’s son, ABC’s Brian Rooney, ABC’s Bob Woodruff, CNN’s Gloria Borger, and MSNBC’s Howard Fineman.
Rooney also has granted a rare interview to USA Today. Excerpts:
• On whether he foresees retiring from 60 Minutes: “I suppose the time may come…I think I’ll know when I can’t do this anymore. I think I’d quit before anyone tells me to.”
• His thoughts on the late Walter Cronkite and Don Hewitt: “They’re missed.”
• He says that getting a reporting job during World War II with the U.S. military newspaper Stars and Stripes was “the single luckiest thing that ever happened to me.”
• On how he’ll celebrate his birthday today — “a 91st birthday isn’t something you celebrate. It’s something you mourn.” — Rooney, a widower, says he’ll probably go out to dinner with the woman in his life: Beryl Pfizer who was a Today show producer in the 1950s.
In this video, Rooney reads portions of his most recent book, Andy Rooney: 60 Years of Wisdom and Wit, out last November.