Quick Facts

American television journalist Roger Mudd was. He was well-known for his work as an anchor and correspondent for NBC News and CBS News. He is well known for serving as The History Channel’s main anchor. As a reporter for The Richmond News Leader and radio station WRNL in Richmond, Virginia, he started his journalism career.

Early in his career, he co-anchored the daily NBC Nightly News, served as the weekend and weekday replacement anchor for the CBS Evening News, and hosted the NBC-TV Meet the Press and American Almanac TV shows. He received Emmy Awards for reporting on the 1972 murder of Alabama Governor George Wallace and the 1973 resignation of Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, as well as two more for CBS specials on the Watergate crisis. In addition, he was honored with five Emmy Awards, the Peabody Award, and the Joan Shorenstein Award for Distinguished Washington Reporting.

How much was the Net worth of Roger Mudd?

At the time of his passing, Roger Mudd ‘s net worth was reported to be between $5 million and $10 million. He was a retired veteran American broadcast journalist, TV host, and author. He gave his alma mater, Washington and Lee University, $4 million on December 10th, 2010 to create the Roger Mudd Center for the Study of Professional Ethics and endow a Roger Mudd Professorship in Ethics.

“I’ve been waiting for this opportunity to thank Washington and Lee for their gifts to me for 60 years,” he remarked. Given the situation of ethics in our culture now, it seems appropriate to establish a center for the study of ethics now, and my university would make a suitable location for it.” His actual career earnings and yearly salaries have not yet been made public. He was leading a simple life. The journalism sector was his primary source of riches.

Early Years: Where was Roger Mudd raised?

Roger Mudd was born on February 9th, 1928, and was raised in Washington, D.C. Roger Harrison Mudd was his legal name at birth. He was of American nationality and of White American ancestry. As of 2021, he finally had a 93rd birthday. His zodiac sign was Aquarius, and he practiced Christianity. In terms of his parents, John Kostka Dominic Mudd, a mapmaker for the United States Geological Survey, was the son of a tobacco farmer. Irma Iris Harrison, Roger’s mother, was a nurse and lieutenant in the United States Army Nurse Corps serving in the physiotherapy ward at the Walter Reed Hospital, when she first met Roger’s father. She was also the daughter of a farmer.

Regarding his scholastic background, he attended DC Public Schools and Wilson High School, where he received his diploma in 1945. In 1953, he received his Master of Arts in History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill after earning his Bachelor of Arts in History from Washington and Lee University. Additionally, he belonged to the worldwide fraternity Delta Tau Delta. At Washington and Lee, he was initiated as an alumnus member of Omicron Delta Kappa in 1966. He enrolled in the University of Richmond School of Law at the end of 1954 but left after just one semester.

What was the Professional Career of Roger Mudd?

For The Richmond News Leader and radio station WRNL, Roger Mudd began his reporting career. He began working at the News-rewrite Leader’s desk in the spring of 1953, and on June 15 of the same year, he was promoted to summer replacement. On June 19, 1953, The News Leader published its first article with a Mudd byline. He hosted the regular noon newscast at WRNL radio. In his autobiography, “The Place to Be,” he recounts an event from his first day at WRNL in which he mispronounced the name of Pope Pius XII and laughed wildly on live after mispronouncing a news item about his failing health.

He didn’t properly turn off his microphone, so an engineer stepped in. Later, Virginia Headlines, Mudd’s daily broadcast, was given by WRNL. Later, in the late 1950s, he relocated from Virginia to Washington, D.C. to work as a reporter for WTOP News. He first worked on WTOP’s 6:00 a.m. newscast before contributing to local news pieces on the regional TV show “Potomac Panorama.” At the end of 1956, he hosted WTOP’s 6:00 p.m. program, which had a weekly commentary segment and was free of “the restrictions of the wire service terminology.” In the summer of 1957, he also created a half-hour TV documentary. For its 11 p.m. newscast in March 1959, WTOP opted to replace Don Richards with Mudd.

More on Career

On May 31, 1961, he finally began working for CBS News. Mudd worked for CBS for the majority of his career as a congressional correspondent. He also served as the host of “CBS Evening News” on Saturdays. He anchored CBS’ coverage of the August 28, 1963, March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom during the Civil Rights Movement. On November 13th, 1963, CBS-TV aired the documentary “Case History of a Rumor.” He gained notoriety in 1964 after reporting on the Civil Rights Act of 1964’s two-month filibuster, which began in late March. Additionally, he covered many political races.

He also covered Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s campaign for president in 1968, speaking with him at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles just before Kennedy was killed on June 5, 1968. He served as the host of the influential documentary “The Selling of the Pentagon” in 1971. Also, He ran for the position of CBS Evening News anchor in 1981 after Walter Cronkite retired. He gained notoriety for an interview he gave with Senator Ted Kennedy that was aired on November 4, 1979. Mudd questioned Kennedy over the Chappaquiddick event as well as his desire to serve as president.

More on Career

Kennedy’s stuttering response—described as “incoherent and repeated” and “vague, unprepared”—while the senator “twitched and squirmed” for an hour generated important doubts about his motivation for running for office and signaled the start of a precipitous drop in his poll numbers. Mudd’s reputation as a top political journalist was enhanced by the interview, despite the Kennedy family’s refusal to grant him permission for any additional interviews. A Peabody Award was given to him for the interview. He made the decision to quit CBS News after Dan Rather was given the position, which led him to accept a job offer from NBC News.  Afterward, he and Tom Brokaw co-anchored “NBC Nightly News” from April 1982 until September 1983. From 1984 to 1985, he co-moderated the NBC “Meet the Press” show with Marvin Kalb.

Later, he shared the role of co-anchor with Connie Chung on the NBC news programs “1986” and “American Almanac.” He worked as a political correspondent and essayist for the MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour on PBS from 1987 to 1993. He served as a visiting professor at Princeton University and Washington and Lee University from 1993 to 1996. Additionally, he spent more than 10 years as the main anchor for “The History Channel,” where many of his shows are still broadcast in reruns. He stopped broadcasting full-time in 2004, but he continued working on documentaries for “The History” till he passed away.

Who was Roger Mudd married to?

In 1957, Roger Mudd was married to his lovely bride EJ Mudd. EJ passed away sadly in 2011 at the age of 86. The couple had four children: Maria Mudd Ruth, Matthew Mudd, Jonathan Mudd, the singer-songwriter, and the former CEO of Fortress Investment Group LLC and Fannie Mae, Daniel. He was heterosexual in sexual preference.

He also served as a trustee for the Virginia Foundation for Independent Schools, where he was instrumental in creating the organization’s well-known “Ethics Bowl,” which pits student teams from Virginia’s private colleges against one another in actual examples of ethical difficulties. Also, He served as a trustee for the National Portrait Gallery as well.

What was Roger Mudd’s Cause of Death?

On March 9, 2021, Roger Mudd passes away at the age of 93. He has 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren left behind. He was a collateral descendant of Samuel Mudd, the physician who was imprisoned for assisting and plotting with John Wilkes Booth following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, meaning that he came from another branch within the same wide family tree. At his McLean, Virginia, residence, he passed away from kidney failure-related complications.

What was Roger Mudd’s height?

Roger Mudd had a typical body type and was an attractive man. He had the ideal height for his body weight and stood tall. However, his actual physique measurements have not yet been made public. His eyes were brown, and his hair was salt and pepper.

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