Three years ago last month, longtime CBS News correspondent Richard Threlkeld died in a car crash on Montauk Highway in Amagansett, New York. Threlkeld, who was 74 when he died, retired from CBS News in 1999. He joined the network in 1966, a year before Bob Simon started at CBS News.
After Threlkeld’s sudden death, Simon remarked: “We were together when we covered the biggest story of our lives: the fall of Saigon, April 29, 1975. We were both in one of the last helicopters to leave the American embassy. We were on the same aircraft carrier on that sad trip to the Philippines. Richard was old school in the best sense. He really didn’t give a damn about being on camera. He didn’t do many stand ups. He always figured there was more interesting footage than himself.”