Roussel writes of Cronkite's Houston ties

Former White House deputy press secretary Peter Roussel, who has taught at A&M, wrote a piece for the Houston Chronicle about the years when Walter Cronkite learned his craft at Houston newspapers, headlined "Cronkite never forgot Houston roots." A snippet:

In his autobiography, A Reporter's Life, Cronkite writes about those days, including his impressions when he first reported for work at the Press: “I had a feeling that I had reached the pinnacle of journalistic success.” Little did he realize the heights he would ultimately scale in the profession. He points out that that newspaper was one of the venues where he learned about accuracy in reporting, a standard that would be a hallmark of his work. “The year on the Press was a learning time … the serious lessons of daily journalism.”

For much of his career he had a front row seat at the unfolding of epic events: World War II, the Nuremberg trials, the national political conventions, the birth of the space program and men walking on the moon. It was an incredible span of time, and for good chunks of it he delivered the pages of history to our living rooms as CBS' anchorman. Through it all he never forgot Houston, including the experiences and people he had known here even as events continued to propel his way to journalistic greatness.