Walter Cronkite was no stranger to the University of Texas at Austin, and now most of his personal papers and photographs will be permanently filed in the archives of the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History on campus.
Three months after his death, the will of the legendary broadcaster and former student has been finalized, and the papers are now being transferred to UT.
“These are some of the most influential documents in the history of broadcast journalism,” said center director Don Carleton.
Cronkite dropped out of the University in 1935 during his junior year, but while he was a student, he worked as a reporter for The Daily Texan. He went on to work as an anchor for CBS News and famously declared the Vietnam War could not be won.
The center already has the majority of Cronkite’s papers stored in its archives, including all of his reporter’s notebooks from his 1968 tour through Vietnam and some of his old Texan articles.
The center is waiting to receive some personal papers and photographs from his home and office.
All of the Cronkite memorabilia will be put on exhibition in May, and Carleton said he hopes students at UT will take advantage of the chance to view the exhibit.
Carleton worked with Cronkite from 1988 to the time of his death to secure the papers for the center.
“Working with Walter Cronkite has been one of the highlights of my career,” Carleton said. “He had a wonderful sense of humor and was always very willing to have fun.”
At Cronkite’s funeral in July, Carleton said speakers were quick to acknowledge how much Cronkite actually lived up to his reputation.
“So many people don’t live up to expectations when you actually meet them in person,” Carleton said. “Walter Cronkite was not one of those people.”
Journalism lecturer Katherine Dawson said she showed one her classes a “60 Minutes” special on Cronkite shortly after his death and that she hoped they felt the impact of the loss to the entire industry.
“I hope [the donations] will be very significant,” Dawson said. “I’m not sure if UT students understand the impact that people like Edward R. Murrow or Walter Cronkite had on broadcast journalism. If you were born in the ‘80s, you just become used to more sensationalized television news.”
Dawson said the broadcast industry has started dumbing down phrases in the past 20 years, but Cronkite did not talk down to his audience. She said he assumed that his audience would understand the complex material he covered.
“People felt confident he doubled-checked all of his sources and facts,” Dawson said. “When he did interviews, he exuded this sort of morality that we unfortunately don’t see a lot of in broadcast journalism today.”
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