Bob Simon
Robert David Simon (May 29, 1941 – February 11, 2015) was an American television correspondent for CBS News. He covered crises, war, and unrest in 67 countries during his career.[1] Simon reported the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam, the Israeli-Lebanese Conflict in 1982, and the student protests in China's Tiananmen Square in 1989. During the Persian Gulf War in 1991, he and four of his TV crew were captured and imprisoned by Iraq for 40 days. He published a book about the experience titled Forty Days.
Bob Simon
May 29, 1941
February 11, 2015 (aged 73)
News reporter
1969–2015
60 Minutes (1996–2015)
1
He became a regular correspondent for CBS's 60 Minutes in 1996 and, in 1999, for 60 Minutes II. At the time of his death in an auto accident, he served as 60 Minutes senior foreign correspondent. Simon is described as having been "a giant of broadcast journalism" by CBS News President David Rhodes,.[2] He is recognized as one of the few journalists who have covered most of the major overseas conflicts since 1969. For his extensive reporting over a 47-year career, he earned more than 40 major awards, including the Overseas Press Club award and 27 Emmy Awards for journalism.[3]
On February 11, 2015, Simon was critically injured in a car accident in Manhattan, New York. He was transported to St. Luke's–Roosevelt Hospital (now Mount Sinai West), where he died shortly afterwards.[4][5]
Early life and education[edit]
Simon was born to a Jewish family[6] in The Bronx in New York City. In 1962, he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Brandeis University with a degree in history.[4] From 1964 to 1967, Simon served as an American Foreign Service officer and was a Fulbright Scholar in France and a Woodrow Wilson scholar. From 1969 to 1971, he worked at the CBS News London bureau, and from 1971 to 1977, was based in the London and Saigon bureaus, where he worked as a Vietnam War correspondent. From 1977 to 1981, he was assigned to the CBS News Tel Aviv bureau.
Death[edit]
On February 11, 2015, Simon was discovered unconscious with severe head injuries in a car crash on the West Side Highway of Manhattan, New York.[2] His for-hire driver had lost control, resulting in a collision with another vehicle. Simon was extracted from the roof of the limo by rescue workers and transported to St. Luke's–Roosevelt Hospital, where he died a short time later.[12]
The for-hire driver, who survived the crash, had his driver's license suspended nine times between 2011 and Simon's death.[13][14]
Honors and awards[edit]
Simon won three Peabody Awards[15] and 27 Emmy Awards,[16] including a 2012 Emmy for his report on the world's only all-black symphony orchestra in Central Africa. He would win yet another Emmy Award with his reporting about an orchestra in Paraguay whose poor members constructed instruments from the trash retrieved from a local landfill. He was a four-time recipient of the Overseas Press Club's highest honor for a body of work, the President's Award. He received the Edward Weintal Prize given by Georgetown University's Institute for the Study of Diplomacy in recognition of distinguished reporting on foreign policy and diplomacy. After his story titled "Shame of Srebrenica," a 60 Minutes II report about genocide during the Bosnian War, he was awarded the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award.[3]