Tom Brokaw

Tom Brokaw was the longtime anchor and managing editor of the NBC Nightly News from 1982 to 2004, and is the author of the best-selling "The Greatest Generation" about the American citizens who came of age during the Great Depression and World War II and went on to build modern America. Brokaw is a graduate of the University of South Dakota and began his broadcast career in Omaha. He moved to Atlanta and detailed the civil rights movement for the network. In 1966, Brokaw transferred to Los Angeles as the featured political reporter and evening news anchor. In 1973, he was named NBC News White House Correspondent, where he covered some of the most tumultuous years in American politics, and then went on to anchor "The Today Show." In 1983, Brokaw became the sole anchor of NBC "Nightly News" where he carried out special assignments around the globe. He conducted the first exclusive television one-on-one interviews with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Russian President Vladimir Putin and was the only network anchor in Berlin when the Berlin Wall fell. Brokaw has earned a solid reputation as one of the worlds preeminent broadcast journalists and currently serves as a Special Correspondent for NBC News and works on documentaries for other television channels. Tom Brokaw spoke to the Academy students at the 1989 Achievement Summit in San Francisco about his broadcasting career and his personal motivations.