 | | 60 Minutes' Lesley Stahl |
Lesley Stahl, longtime correspondent for CBS’ 60 Minutes news magazine program, will deliver the Commencement Address and receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree during Loyola College in Maryland’s 156th Commencement Exercises on Saturday, May 17, College President Rev. Brian F. Linnane, S.J., has announced. More than 1,600 baccalaureate and advanced degrees will be conferred during the Exercises, which begin at 11 a.m. at Baltimore’s 1st Mariner Arena. “Ms. Stahl has long exemplified the very best in American journalism,” said Fr. Linnane. “I am delighted that she has agreed to speak to our graduating class, and I am confident that her experiences, insights and perspective on the most critical issues in today’s society will prove inspiring to our graduates, who are preparing to take on new responsibilities as leaders in today’s rapidly changing, increasingly diverse and remarkably promising world.” Prior to joining 60 Minutes, Stahl served as CBS News White House correspondent during the Carter and Reagan presidencies and part of the term of George H.W. Bush. Her reports appeared frequently on the CBS Evening News, first with Walter Cronkite, then with Dan Rather, and on other CBS News broadcasts. During much of that time, Stahl also served as moderator of Face The Nation, CBS News' Sunday public affairs broadcast (September 1983-May 1991). For Face The Nation, she interviewed such newsmakers as Margaret Thatcher, Boris Yeltsin, Yasir Arafat and virtually every top U.S. official, including George H.W. Bush and Dan Quayle. From October 1990 to March 1991, Stahl supplemented her work at the White House and Face The Nation by joining Charles Kuralt as co-anchor of America Tonight, a daily CBS News late-night broadcast of interviews and essays. Her experiences covering Washington for more than 20 years became the subject of her 1999 book Reporting Live. The stories she has covered while at CBS News range from Watergate in 1972 on through the 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan and the 1991 Gulf War. She has reported on every US-Russian summit meeting since 1978, every economic summit of industrialized countries since 1979 and every national political convention and election night since 1974. Stahl anchored several CBS News documentaries, including The Politics of Cancer and In the Red Blues, about the budget deficit, both for CBS Reports. She has won many Emmy Awards for her interviews on Face The Nation and her 60 Minutes reporting, including a Lifetime Achievement Emmy given in September 2003. Stahl’s 60 Minutes reports "How He Won the War," about former FDA Commissioner David Kessler's battle with the tobacco industry, and "Punishing Saddam," which exposed the plight of Iraqi citizens, mostly children, suffering the effects of the United Nations sanctions against Iraq, were both Emmy winners. "Punishing Saddam" also won Stahl a prestigious Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award. In 1996, Stahl was awarded the Fred Friendly First Amendment Award given by Quinnipiac College in Hamden, Conn., in recognition of her journalistic achievements. She was also honored that year by the Radio and Television News Directors Association with an Edward R. Murrow Award for Overall Excellence in Television for her reports on the Michigan Militia. In 1993, she received a Matrix Award for Broadcasting, presented by New York Women in Communications Inc., which recognizes and honors women for outstanding career achievement. In 1990, she was honored with the prestigious Dennis Kauff Journalism Award for lifetime achievement in the news profession. Stahl graduated cum laude in 1963 from Wheaton College, where she serves on the board of trustees. She and her husband, author Aaron Latham, live in New York. They have a daughter, Taylor. For more information on Loyola’s 2008 Commencement Exercises, please call the Loyola College Office of Public Relations at 410-617-5025. | 
