Sure, We Remember
Edward R. Mur row
’■'lie i ill «‘rn.ilion.il «‘onainontnlor from
l*olocal Crock. N. C.
R Hood for "Roieoc.”
Гсп
years after his death, is Ed-
w.ird R Murrow remembered in North
Carolina?
Г
he British Broadeasting
Corporation was curious to know.
A documentary on Murrow's life
and work as an international commen¬
tator radio and television is being
done by BBC and will be aired from
London on Sunday. April 27. 1975,
the tenth anniversary of his death. The
possibility of its being shown in this
country has not been resolved.
Л
team from BBC came to Green¬
ville on February 17. 1975. at which
time they interviewed with some depth
eight Greenville citizens. They asked
two simple questions. “What docs the
name Edward R. Murrow mean to
you? Mow do North Carolinians re¬
member him?" Those interviews w-ill
provide a segment of the total docu¬
mentary to supplement observations
by his widow. Janet Brewster Murrow;
Fred Friendly, a producer of many of
Murrow’s television shows; Henry
Loomis, director of the "Voice of
America" when Murrow headed the
United States Information Agency;
Senator Hubert H. Humphrey; and
CBS commentator Charles Colling-
wood. Peter Foges of BBC is the pro¬
ducer-director, and Frank Gillard, an
associate of Murrow as a war corre¬
spondent, as script writer and narra¬
tor, did the end pieces for the broad¬
cast.
Incidentally, those end pieces were
filmed at Site A of the “Voice of
America” near Greenville, where the
tri-part VOA complex is located. Mr.
Murrow came to Greenville with a
bevy of top government officials on
February 8. 1963, and headlined the
program of dedication for the complex.
In 1968, it was given the name "The
Edward R. Murrow Communication
Center,” in his honor.
Born in This Slate
Murrow was bom in the rural Cen¬
ter Community of Guilford County,
south of Greensboro. April 25. 1908.
When he was five, his family moved
to Skagit County, Washington, where
his father became a locomotive engi¬
neer for a lumber company, lie fin¬
ished high school in 1924, and worked
for two years as a compassman and
topographer for timber cruises. Me
went first to Lcland Stanford Univer¬
sity. then to the University of Wash¬
ington. and spent the last two and a
When British Broadcasting Corporation recently
come to Greennlle. producing a documentary on
Murrov't tile, they filmed inter»ie*s with Or.
> W foe ond other local citizens. Kneeling,
Reler foges. producer-director; standing, bach to
comcro, Frank Gillard, script writer ond norrotar.
— (Tamm, Forrest photo courtesy "The Daily
Re»lector.”l
half collegiate years at Washington
State University, Pullman, where he
was graduated (Phi Beta Kappa) with
a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1930.
( Murrow had been named Egbert Ros-
coe at birth, but when he was 16. he
changed his first name to Edward, and
for the rest of his life was known as
lid ward R. Murrow.)
Through all of his college years, he
was a campus leader: president of his
Junior Class, and in his Senior year.
President of the student body. Follow¬
ing graduation, he became President of
the National Student Federation and
for two years traveled widely in this
country and abroad organizing a travel
bureau for students, and arranging in¬
tercollegiate debates between Ameri¬
can and European colleges and uni¬
versities. That work attracted the atten¬
tion of leaders of the prestigious In¬
stitute of International Education, and
he served three years as its Assistant
Director, establishing and supervising
foreign offices of the Institute in Lon¬
don, Paris, Geneva, and Vienna.
The War Years
With such a background it was not
unusual that in 1935. at the age of 27,
he joined the Columbia Broadcasting
System as a director of talks and edu¬
cation. Two years later he was in Lon¬
don as European Director and became
one of the most articulate, respected
war correspondents of the tragic years
that followed. He tracked the Nazi
leaders from their beginning, was first
on the air with the movement of Hit¬
ler into Austria, and was one of four
commentators who reported the
Fuhrer's “declaration of intent” on
September 12, 1938 — a broadcast that
began. “There is little optimism in Lon¬
don tonight."
There followed his immortal series.
" This — Is London." that guaranteed
THE STATE. April 1975