Journalist And Television Executive Richard Wald, CC '52, Passes Away At 92

Upper West Side NY

06 June, 2022

4:29 PM

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By Stella Pagkas, Columbia Daily Spectator • June 5, 2022, 10:58 AM Richard "Dick" Wald, CC '52, has passed away at 92. The acclaimed journalist, television executive, and former chair of the Spectator board of trustees died on May 13 at Montefiore New Rochelle Hospital, due to complications from a stroke, his son Matthew Wald confirmed. Often characterized as adefining figure in 20th-century journalism, Wald is perhaps best known for his involvement in the creation of ABC's "Nightline," as well as his prediction of the 24-hour news cycle. Wald also served on Spectator's board of trustees for 40 years, and offered opportunities and advice to aspiring journalists and students. He is remembered by former colleagues and loved ones for his sharp editorial judgment and ethical standards. A lifelong New Yorker, Wald was born in Manhattan on 110th Street on March 19, 1930. He attended Stuyvesant High School before pursuing a B.A. in English literature at Columbia. During his junior year, Wald joined Spectator. "Dick came onto staff late. I think it was not until junior year that I was really conscious of him. But he moved up the ranks very quickly, because he was so obviously interested, alert, energetic, had a terrific sense of humor, and was a little different from the rest of us. Most of us were sort of politics and history students interested in a journalism career, and he came over from the more serious English lit side," Max Frankel, CC '52, GSAS '53, Spectator's 75th editor in chief and former executive editor of the New York Times, said. Frankel and Wald would come to be regarded as members of an iconic class in Spectator's history that went on to become defining figures in 20th-century American journalism. At Spectator, Wald served as an associate editor, while Frankel served as editor in chief. Lawrence Grossman, who would go on to head PBS and NBC News, served as managing editor, while Roone Arledge, who would become president of ABC News, worked for the business side of Spectator. As undergraduates, Wald, Frankel, Grossman, and Arledge shared an apartment off campus. While Wald's classmates found careers in journalism right after graduation, Wald received a fellowship that sent him to Clare College at the University of Cambridge to pursue a master's degree in English. After finishing his degree in 1954, Wald worked as a foreign correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune, which he had also done freelance work for as an undergraduate. That same year, he married his wife, the former Edith Leslie. The couple would go on to have three children and spend 67 years together before her passing in December 2021. Upon returning to New York City, Wald continued to work for the Herald Tribune. He would go on to be the paper's last managing editor before it stopped publishing in 1966. While under Wald's guidance, the paper was known for New Journalism, a narrative reporting style used by several Herald Tribune journalists. In 1967, after briefly holding positions at the New York World Journal Tribune and the Washington Post, Wald joined NBC. By 1973, he became president of NBC News, a position he held until 1977. As president, Wald oversaw the network's coverage of large stories like the Watergate scandal. Wald is often credited with predicting the advent of the 24-hour television news cycle. "He gave a speech at the [National Association of Broadcasters] convention, at which he casually predicted that sometime in the near future somebody was going to come up with a 24-hour news channel, which preceded CNN by several years," Matthew Wald said. "It was apparently an off-the-cuff speech. He did that often." In 1978, Wald became the senior vice president of editorial quality at ABC News, working alongside then-president Arledge, his long-time friend. At ABC, Wald was involved in the creation of the news program "Nightline," which began with the network's nightly coverage of the 1979 U.S. hostage situation in Iran. During this tenure, Wald was known for what his son Jonathan Wald described as the "forceful" upholding of ethical standards in journalism. Many referred to him as the "ethics czar." "His legacy in the world of journalism [is], I think, the years that he spent monitoring serious ethical debates and conflict as to what you put on the air and what you don't. When is the story ready? When is it not? When are you invading somebody's privacy? When are you not? Case by case by case. … Dick left a record of really distinguished judgment, and he imparted it to a whole network," Frankel said. Wald was tasked with reviewing footage and programs before they aired in order to ensure they met the network's standards and to catch potentially flawed stories before they were pursued. While this might have been a demanding job during the '80s and '90s, Frankel said he wishes that today's turbulent media cycle was held to Wald's standards. "They listened to him behind the scenes and let him make important judgments, and, I think, to the extent that that survives—in the spirit of other people putting things on the air—that that would be an important legacy. A lot of it, of course, now in the shouting era on cable television, has not survived what I would call ethical standards. I wish we had him around to deal with Fox News and MSNBC and the others." Wald retired from ABC in 1999, returning to Columbia to teach at the Journalism School, where he hired his son Jonathan—also a major figure in broadcast news—to be his teaching assistant. Wald was later named the Fred W. Friendly professor of professional practice in media society emeritus. During his teaching career, as well as throughout his forty year tenure on Spectator's board of trustees, Wald was beloved for the guidance that he gave to young aspiring journalists. "I was sort of intimidated to meet him, because all I knew was that he was this legendary figure in broadcast journalism, as well as this legendary figure at Columbia because he was teaching at the Journalism School and this legendary figure on Spectator—so I was super intimidated," Megan Greenwell, BC '06, Spectator's 129th editor in chief and the current chair of its board of trustees, said. "Pretty much for my first meeting with him, what I found instead was somebody who was always willing to help and had done all that work for Spectator, just because he really cares about helping students and helping young journalists." Jonathan Wald, another of Wald's sons, recalled that his parents used to hire college students to babysit over the summer—many of whom, with Wald's help, went on to have careers in journalism. "I have been as helpful as I can to as many people as possible. That's always been my goal, and that is a direct result of him leading by example," Jonathan Wald said. Wald taught at the Journalism School until 2018. Throughout his career, he was involved with several prestigious award-granting associations, including the Pulitzer Prizes, the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, and the Peabody Awards. Jonathan Wald said that, out of all of the conversations he had with his father about journalism and television, two pieces of advice have stayed with him. "He said, 'There are two kinds of people in the world and in television—those who give a shit and those who don't.' And the other piece of advice was [to] return every phone call: 'If Barbara Walters can do it, you can too.'" Richard Wald is survived by his three children, Matthew Wald, Elizabeth Wald, and Jonathan Wald, as well has seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter and like Spectator on Facebook. Founded in 1877, the Columbia Daily Spectator is the independent undergraduate newspaper of Columbia University, serving thousands of readers in Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and beyond. Read more at columbiaspectator.com and donate here.