Eric Severied

Arnold Eric Sevareid (November 26, 1912 – July 9, 1992) was a CBS news journalist from 1939 to 1977. He was one of a group of elite war correspondents hired by pioneering CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow, and thus dubbed "Murrow's Boys". He was the first to report the fall of Paris when it was captured by the Germans during World War II. Traveling into Burma during World War II, his aircraft was shot down and he was rescued from behind enemy lines by a search and rescue team established for that purpose. He was the final journalist to interview Adlai Stevenson before his death. After a long and distinguished career, he followed in Murrow's footsteps as a commentator on the CBS Evening News for 12 years for which he was recognized with Emmy and Peabody Awards.

Early life Sevareid was a child of the northern Great Plains, born in Velva, North Dakota, to Alfred E. and Clara H. Sevareid. Following the failure of the bank in Velva in 1925, his family moved to Minot, and then to Minneapolis, Minnesota, settling on 30th Avenue North. He graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1935. Of Norwegian ancestry, he preserved a strong bond with Norway throughout his life. Sevareid was adventurous from a young age. Several days after he graduated from high school, he and his friend Walter Port embarked on an expedition sponsored by the Minneapolis Star, from Minneapolis to York Factory on Hudson Bay. They canoed up the Minnesota River and its tributary, the Little Minnesota River to Browns Valley, Minnesota, portaged to Lake Traverse and descended the Bois des Sioux River to the Red River of the North which led to Lake Winnipeg, then went down the Nelson River, Gods River, and Hayes River to Hudson Bay, a trip of 2,250 miles (3,620 km). Sevareid's book, Canoeing with the Cree, was the result of this canoe trip. The book is still in print. Reporter in college At the age of 18, Sevareid entered journalism as a reporter for the Minneapolis Journal, while a student at the University of Minnesota in political science. He continued his studies abroad, first in London and later in Paris at the Sorbonne, where he also worked as an editor for United Press. He then became city editor of the Paris Herald Tribune. He left that post to join CBS as a foreign correspondent, based in Paris; he broadcast the fall of Paris, and followed the French government from there to Bordeaux and then Vichy, before leaving France for London and finally Washington. He was appointed CBS's Washington bureau chief in July, 1942. He wrote about the Plains influence on his life in his early memoir Not So Wild A Dream (1946), which covered his life in Velva, his family, the Hudson Bay trip, hitchhiking around the USA, mining in the Sierra Nevada, the Great Depression years, his early journalism and especially his experiences in World War II. This book remains in print. World War II reporting Relationship with Edward Murrow Sevareid's work during World War II, with Edward R. Murrow as one of the original Murrow's Boys, was at the forefront of broadcasting. He was the first to report on the fall of France and the French surrender to Nazi Germany in 1940. Shortly after, he joined Murrow to report on the Battle of Britain. Later Sevareid would refer to the early years, working with Murrow, in fond terms. "We were like a young band of brothers in those early radio days with Murrow", he said. Later, in his final broadcast with CBS, in 1977 he would call Murrow the man who "invented me." Rescue in Burma On August 2, 1943, Sevareid was on board a Curtiss-Wright C-46 Commando that developed engine trouble over Burma while on a Hump airlift mission. He grabbed a bottle of Carew's gin before parachuting out of the plane. The U.S. Air Force formed a search and rescue team to bring the group out from behind enemy lines. The operatives parachuted in, located the party, and evacuated them safely. Sevareid later reported on </span