Journal-isms‘ Richard Prince reports today of another loss for the CBS News family.
Al Stiney, a tech staff supervisor for the CBS Evening News weekday and weekend editions, passed away Friday at age 62. His widow Rena says Stiney died of heart failure after a short illness.
Prince notes that the death of Stiney — an Emmy and Peabody award winner thought to be the first African American to hold a supervisory technical position at CBS — came one day before the passing of CBS colleague Harold Dow, another pioneering African American in television. Also coincidentally, Dow and Stiney were born exactly one week apart.
“On a personal level I can tell you that Al was one of those guys who was clearly proud that more African Americans were working at places like CBS News compared to when he started 40-years ago,” says CBS Evening News Sunday edition anchor Russ Mitchell. “When you’d see him in the hall he’d always give a wink and say ‘great job’.”
(photo courtesy of CBS News)