Longtime CBS News correspondent Robert Pierpoint died yesterday from complications following hip surgery. He was 86.
Pierpoint covered six Presidents for CBS, from Dwight Eisenhower in 1957 to Jimmy Carter in 1980. As a foreign correspondent, Pierpoint became known for his compelling reports from the front lines in Korea. His real-life role in the war led to a pair of appearances on the TV show M*A*S*H*, including a part in the final episode of the series, which was viewed by an estimated 125 million people.
He rode the press bus in Dallas the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. From Parkland Hospital, Pierpoint spent three hours on the phone with CBS in New York reporting up-to-the-minute details of that day.
After 23 years at the White House, in 1980 Pierpoint moved to covering the State Department. He retired in 1990 after rounding out his career reporting for “Sunday Morning.”
His full obituary from CBS News, is after the jump.
CBS NEWSMAN ROBERT PIERPOINT, WHO COVERED SIX PRESIDENTS AND WAS ONE OF THE FIRST WAR CORRESPONDENTS TO REPORT ON TELEVISION, DIES AT 86.
Robert Pierpoint, a CBS Newsman whose coverage of six presidents made him one of the longest serving White House correspondents and whose reports from the front lines in Korea were among the first for television to focus on the individual soldier, died yesterday(22) after complications related to hip surgery. He was 86 and lived in Santa Barbara, Calif.
Pierpoint’s pioneering Korean War reports led to his voice playing a central role in the most watched television show in the history of the medium. In the final episode of M*A*S*H in 1983, it is Pierpoint’s voice on the radio reporting the cease fire that would mark the end of the fighting and the iconic CBS program. Nielsen estimated the audience at 125 million viewers – still the single most-watched television episode in history.
He also made history early in his 40-year career at CBS News when one of his reports from Korea was featured on the first “See it Now” broadcast on Nov. 18, 1951, the first to simultaneous show live feeds of both U.S. coasts. Pierpoint’s report was among the very first on television to focus on the soldier in a more personal style as opposed to the newsreel films that featured the battles and materiel over the story of the individual trooper. He also appeared on that program’s famous “Christmas in Korea” edition on Dec. 29, 1953, playing a lead role in interviewing U.S. troops and covering the story of Ethiopian soldiers involved in the war.
Pierpoint reported throughout the conflict, occasionally on television but mostly on CBS Radio for WORLD NEWS ROUNDUP. He continued to cover the region after the war, serving as Far East bureau chief until 1957.
Pierpoint made his biggest mark at CBS News covering the political wars. As a White House correspondent from Dwight Eisenhower’s administration beginning in 1957 through Jimmy Carter’s in 1980, few have trailed as many presidents as Pierpoint. His favorite was John F. Kennedy.
Riding the press bus in Dallas the day JFK was assassinated, the former war correspondent recognized the distinct sound of rifle shots. He made his way to Parkland Hospital where he found a nurse who showed him to a phone. He reported to CBS News in New York everything he saw in the hospital for three hours except for one important fact: First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy emerged from her husband’s room with blood on her pink jacket. He regretted not reporting the sight, telling the Santa Barbara News Press in an article only a few weeks ago, “I was in shock.”
Pierpoint worked in Washington when the biggest stories of the day were making history in the nation’s capital. He covered Watergate, the Pentagon Papers and the resignation of Richard Nixon, as part of a Murder’s Row of reporting talent out of the CBS News Washington Bureau that included Lesley Stahl, Roger Mudd, Bob Schieffer and Ed Bradley.
His 1981 book, “At the White House,” described his 23 years covering presidential politics. He won two Emmy awards; he also earned the Drew Pearson Foundation Award for Investigative Reporting.
He moved over to the State Department in 1980, just in time to cover the continuing hostage crisis in Iran. In 1983, he joined Charles Kuralt on SUNDAY MORNING, where he enjoyed reporting stories of much longer length than those he filed for “The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.” He retired from CBS News in 1990.
Robert Charles Pierpoint was born May 16, 1925 in Redondo Beach, Calif., and moved to Whittier Calif. where he graduated from Whittier Union High School. Upon graduation in 1943, he joined the navy, training stateside until his discharge in 1945. He attended California Institute of Technology on the G.I. Bill and graduated from California’s University of Redlands in 1948. He then went overseas for graduate study at the University of Stockholm.
Pierpoint joined CBS shortly after in 1949. He had gone to the nearby country of Finland on a school break when a Communist uprising broke out and he was asked to report on the news as a stringer. He was invited to continue on as a stringer in Stockholm, where he had a chance encounter with Edward R. Murrow that led to his role at CBS. After covering the Nobel prizes, Pierpoint was contacted by Murrow from New York who asked for copy of William Faulkner’s speech accepting the prize in literature. This contact led to an offer of a correspondent job, which he took in 1951. Murrow then sent him to Tokyo, where he was when the conflict in Korea broke out.
He is survived by his wife of 52 years Patricia (nee Adams), a sister, Ruth Hogg, four children, Marta, Kim, Stanley, and Eric, a film and television actor, and five grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Charles and Emma Pierpoint Scholarship Fund at the University of Redlands, 1200 E. Colton Ave., P.0. Box 3080 Redlands, CA. 92373.