Jim Lehrer, the longtime host of PBS NewsHour, died on Thursday at the age of 85.
Lehrer spent his career in journalism beginning with the Dallas Morning News in 1959. He then moved to the Dallas Times-Herald where he covered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
In the late 1960s, Lehrer left print to work in television with KERA-TV and the program Newsroom, which was a 30-minute evening broadcast in Dallas. Fifteen years later, he became the Washington correspondent for Robert MacNeil Report on WNET-TV, where he was then promoted to co-anchor. That show went on to become PBS NewsHour.
Judy Woodruff, anchor and managing editor of PBS NewsHour, issued a statement about Lehrer’s passing.
“I’m heartbroken at the loss of someone who was central to my professional life, a mentor to me and someone whose friendship I’ve cherished for decades,” she said. “I’ve looked up to him as the standard for fair, probing and thoughtful journalism and I know countless others who feel the same way.”
In addition to his work in the newsroom, Lehrer served for three years as an infantry officer in the Marine Corps. He authored 20 novels, three memoirs, and several plays. One of his first novels, Viva Max! was also turned into a film. For all of his writing, Lehrer was awarded the National Humanities Medal from President Bill Clinton. Beyond the national honor, Lehrer won an Emmy, a George Foster Peabody Broadcast Award, and the Walter Cronkite Award for excellence in journalism. He also became a fellow for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and earned a spot in the Television Hall of Fame alongside MacNeil.
Lehrer stayed with PBS NewsHour until his retirement in 2011.
