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Robert MacNeil

Robert Breckenridge Ware MacNeil OC (January 19, 1931 – April 12, 2024), often known as Robin MacNeil, was a Canadian-American journalist, writer and television news anchor. He partnered with Jim Lehrer to create the landmark public television news program The Robert MacNeil Report in 1975.[1] MacNeil co-anchored the program until 1995. The show eventually became the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour and is today the PBS NewsHour.

For other people named Robert MacNeil, see Robert MacNeil (disambiguation).

Robert MacNeil
OC

Robert Breckenridge Ware MacNeil

(1931-01-19)January 19, 1931
Montreal, Quebec, Canada

April 12, 2024(2024-04-12) (aged 93)

New York City, U.S.
  • Canada
  • United States (from 1997)

Carleton University

  • Journalist
  • novelist

1956–2020

The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour

4, including Ian

Early life and education[edit]

MacNeil was born in Montreal on January 19, 1931, the son of Margaret Virginia (née Oxner) and Robert A. S. MacNeil, a Royal Canadian Navy officer in World War II and later a Canadian foreign service officer.[1][2][3] He grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, went to boarding school at Rothesay Collegiate School and Upper Canada College, then attended Dalhousie University and later graduated from Carleton University in Ottawa in 1955.[4]

Personal life and death[edit]

MacNeil became a naturalized American citizen in 1997, and became an Order of Canada officer that same year.[4][24] He was married to Rosemarie Coopland, Jane Doherty, and Donna Nappi Richards MacNeil.[25] With Coopland, he was the father of award-winning theatre scenic designer Ian MacNeil.[26]


MacNeil was known to friends and family as "Robin".[1]


MacNeil died of natural causes at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan on April 12, 2024, at the age of 93, confirmed by his daughter Alison MacNeil.[4]

1979: honorary degree from Bates College[27]

LHD

1997: Officer of the , one of Canada's highest civilian honors, for being "one of the most respected journalists of our time"[28]

Order of Canada

1990: Award, Radio Television Digital News Association[29]

Paul White

1991: Made a member of the [30]

American Academy of Arts and Sciences

1999: [1]

Television Hall of Fame

2008: [31]

Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism

The People Machine: The Influence of Television on American Politics (1970).  978-0413276704.

ISBN

Wordstruck: A Memoir (1989)  978-0670818716.

ISBN

: Seeing Black and White (1990). ISBN 978-0878054718.

Eudora Welty

The Way We Were: 1963, the Year (1991). ISBN 978-0881844337.

Kennedy Was Shot

MacNeil, Robert (1992). . Nan A. Talese/Doubleday. ISBN 9780385420198.

Burden of Desire

The Right Place at the Right Time (1990).  978-0140131208.

ISBN

The Voyage (1995).  978-0385469524.

ISBN

Macneil, Robert (1998). Breaking News (A Novel). . ISBN 9780385420204.

Nan A. Talese/Doubleday

with Robert McCrum (accompanied by a PBS documentary miniseries in 1986) ISBN 978-0142002315.

The Story of English

Looking for My Country: Finding Myself in America (2003).  978-0385507813.

ISBN

MacNeil, Robert; Cran, William (December 28, 2004). . Nan A. Talese/Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-51198-8. (accompanied by a PBS documentary miniseries in 2005)

Do You Speak American?

MacNeil also wrote books, many of which are about his career as a journalist. After his retirement from NewsHour, he also dabbled in writing novels.[1] His books include:

| The Interviews: An Oral History of Television

Interview with Robert MacNeil

Fresh Air, NPR—two interviews and obituary

"Remembering Robert Macneil, Longtime Host of PBS 'NewsHour'"

on C-SPAN

Appearances