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Well-Known NBC News Anchor Dead at 74

Feb 21, 2014  •  Post A Comment

An NBC News fixture who was the first television correspondent in Vietnam covering the war full time has died.

NBC News reports that Garrick Utley, a longtime substitute anchor on “NBC Nightly News” and a former moderator on “Meet the Press,” died Thursday after battling cancer. He was 74.

Utley joined NBC News in 1963, and was assigned to the network’s Saigon bureau the following year, Robert Feder reports on his blog.

“He went on to report from more than 70 countries, winning numerous honors including an Edward R. Murrow Award and George Foster Peabody Award,” Feder writes.

Following three decades at NBC News, he joined ABC News as a foreign correspondent, and then later moved to CNN. While at CNN, he co-anchored coverage of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Feder notes.

Feder’s report adds: “His work for public broadcasting included hosting ‘America Abroad,’ a documentary series for Public Radio International, and ‘Live From the Met’ opera broadcasts for PBS.”

During his long tenure at NBC News, Utley was a weekend anchor for much of the 1970s and a frequent substitute for regulars on "NBC Nightly News" including John Chancellor in the 1970s and Tom Brokaw in the 1980s. He continued his weekend anchor duties for NBC into the 1990s.

garrick utley.pngGarrick Utley

2 Comments

  1. One word describes Garrick Utley: Quality.
    His likes are unequalled in todays multilevel forms of journalism.
    Peter Bright

  2. I ran into him once, in 1988. He was covering a (then) Vice President Georgr HW Bush campaign event in Springfield, MO that I covered for Evangel College.
    I wandered into the press lounge after the event and say Garrick standing there, deep in though. He was an imposing figure so I didn’t go up and introduce myself. that remains one of the few things I’ve regretted doing in my life.
    One thing I didn’t realize-he was a very tall man!

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