Tonight marks the end of an era. I am not quite certain what era, but definitely an era. I feel like Santa Claus and Walt Disney all died in one fell swoop. “The most trusted man in America” is no longer with us.
Walter Cronkite appeared to be the consumate professional. We didn’t know his politics. We could count on his objectivity as he reported the nightly news. He was hero. He stormed the beach at Normandy as a war correspondent. He covered the Battle of the Bulge and attended the Nuremburg Trials. Walter Cronkite announced the death of JFK.
Yet there was no greater cheerleader for the space program than Walter Cronkite. It wasn’t what he said as much as it was his exuberance and enthusiasm as he reported the events of Apollo 11 40 years ago. How fitting that he exit this earth as we commemorate “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
There is wonderful overview of his life and career at Wikipedia. There is so much to say but I will leave it to our contributors. So for tonight, in the immortal words of Walter Cronkite, “…And that’s the way it is.”
In his own words:
