Ted Koppel

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Edward James Martin Koppel (born February 8, 1940) is a British-born American broadcast journalist best known as the anchor for Nightline from 1980 to 2005. He spent twenty years as a broadcast reporter and news anchor for ABC before Nightline.

He was regarded as one of the most "outstanding" of the serious-minded interviewers on American television after becoming host of Nightline.

After dropping Nightline, Koppel worked as the Discovery Channel's chief editor, a researcher for NPR and BBC World News America, and a contributor to Rock Center with Brian Williams, five years since the show's debut in 1980.

Koppel is now a special contributor to CBS News Sunday Morning.

Many accolades, including nine Overseas Press Club honors and twenty-five Emmy Awards, have been earned during his career as an international and diplomatic reporter.

Early life and education

Koppel, England's only child, was born in Nelson, England. His parents, who immigrated to Germany after Adolf Hitler's rise and Nazism, were German Jews who fled the country. Koppel's father owned a tire-manufacturing business in Germany. The Home Secretary invited him and his wife to relocate the factory to Lancashire, England, where they would be covered in the event of war. The factory was built in 1936, but when war broke out in Europe in 1939, Koppel's father was declared an enemy alien and imprisoned on the Isle of Man for a year and a half.

Koppel was born in 1940, a few years after his father was taken away from him. His mother sold her personal jewelry and did menial duties in London to care for her infant son. After being recalled from internment, Koppel's father was not allowed to work in England, nor would he allow his wife to work. Following the war's conclusion, the family earned some money from their confiscated possessions and decided to move to the United States. Ted Koppel, a pupil at Abbotsholme School in Derbyshire, was a pupil at Abbotsholme School. The family immigrated to the United States, where Alice, Alice's mother, became a performer and pianist, and Edwin, Jr., opened a tire factory in 1953 at the age of 13. Edward R. Murrow, a radio broadcaster whose factual accounts during London's bombing inspired him to become a reporter, was Koppel's boyhood hero.

Koppel earned a Bachelor of Science degree at the McBurney School, a private preparatory school in New York, at the age of 20. He was a member of the Alpha Chi chapter of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. Koppel "was extremely focused and had a photographic memory," his roommate recalls. He remembers nearly every conversation he had with anyone. And the man never needs sleep."

Koppel obtained his Master of Arts degree in mass-communications analysis and political science at Stanford University. Grace Anne Dorney, his future wife, met him while at Stanford.

Personal life

In 1962, Koppel married Grace Anne Dorney. In 1963, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

Andrea (a former journalist), Deirdre, Andrew, and Tara have four children. Andrew Koppel was discovered dead in an apartment in New York City on May 31, 2010, after a day of binge. Illicit drugs were identified in a post mortem toxicology study.

In comparison to his native English, Koppel speaks German and French.

He is a longtime Henry Kissinger's friend. Both of them were able to migrate to the United States as teenagers. Kissinger, along with former Secretary of State Alexander Haig, was the most popular visitor on Nightline. "Henry Kissinger is, arguably the best secretary of state we've seen in 20, perhaps 30 years, and certainly one of the two or three great secretaries of state of our century," Koppel said in an interview. He is an extraordinary man. This country has lost a lot by not having him in a position of influence and authority."

In 1993, Koppel and his wife paid $2.7 million for 16 acres (6.5 ha) overlooking the Potomac River in Potomac, Maryland. They sued to hold their neighbors to an agreement to limit the size of the houses in the neighborhood's 1000 sq ft (930 m2).

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Career

Before being hired as a copyboy at The New York Times and as a writer at WMCA Radio in New York, Koppel served as a mentor for a brief period. He became ABC Radio News' youngest correspondent ever recruited in June 1963, and spent time on ABC Radio News' daily Flair Reports team. The national news audience was taken notice by his coverage of the Kennedy assassination in 1963 with Charles Osgood. He had intended to do a short report but he was forced to ad-lib for an hour and a half due to a delay during the crisis.

He covered his first of many presidential nominating conventions in 1964. In Selma, Alabama, he began covering the civil rights movement. Koppel's ability to clarify problems using plain words was impressive to ABC officials. In 1966, he became the ABC News correspondent for the Vietnam War, transitioning from radio broadcasting to national television. He accepted the assignment only after the network decided to bring his wife and their two children to Hong Kong so they would be near. Before going on, he took a course to learn the Vietnamese language.

He returned to cover Richard Nixon's campaign before beginning to work in Hong Kong as the country's State Department reporter, where Koppel began a friendship with Henry Kissinger. According to Nixon advisor John Ehrlichman, Koppel's friendship with Kissinger was partly due to their common roots, Jewish immigrant parents, and emigrating to the United States in their youth.

In 1972, Koppel was one of many travelers to China with US President Richard Nixon. He talked to the USC-China Institute in their "Assignment: China" documentary series on American media coverage of China. "The trip to the moon's dark side of the moon" was described by Koppel. He was anchoring the ABC Evening News on Saturdays in 1975, and he continued to write ABC Radio reports.

As he traveled with Kissinger during his meetings in Egypt and Israel in 1975, Koppel would often cover State Department foreign conferences. "I have a high regard for Henry," he said of Kissinger. He has a first-class mind. A half hour with him gives me a better understanding of a foreign policy issue than those who work for hours."

Koppel took a year off from his work to stay home with his children in the mid-1970s so that his wife could complete her education at Georgetown Law School. Koppel's decision angered ABC News president Roone Arledge, who booed Koppel from the news anchor when he returned to the network, but he was taken aback by the network.

In April 1979, he was the lead reporter for an eleven-segment series, "Second to None." The paper, which concentrated on describing nuclear war's risks, was focusing on the dangers of nuclear war." He conducted his own study and wanted to provide "complex information" to an audience that hadn't paid much attention in the past, but he must now and into the future, if there is one." He received an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for the series.

In 1990, Koppel interviewed Nelson Mandela in a US-style town hall meeting.

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Honors and awards

• Eight Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Awards for broadcast journalism;
• Nine Overseas Press Club Awards for best television commentary on foreign news;
• Two George Polk Awards
• Two Sigma Delta Chi Awards
• Three George Foster Peabody Awards
• 1987: honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Duke University.
• 2004: Paul White Award, Radio Television Digital News Association
• 2006: honorary Doctor of Laws degree, University of Southern California