ANDREW HEYWARD: My colleague, Ed Bradley, has been a co-editor of 60 MINUTES since 1981. He probably got to know Charles best in the '70s, when Ed was the principal correspondent for CBS REPORTS and also an occasional contributor to SUNDAY MORNING. Ed?

ED BRADLEY: More than 30 years ago, I was teaching school in Philadelphia during the day and working at a small radio station at night I'd had no training as a journalist and used to listen to WCAU radio, which was the CBS station in Philly—it was my classroom of the air. I listened to Collingwood and Kendrick and to Charles Kuralt, and I'd often wonder, "Where do I find the person who can teach me to write like that?" One of the favorite sayings of the television news business is that one picture is worth a thousand words, but not if Kuralt wrote those words.

I was in awe of Charles Kuralt. To me, more than anyone else at CBS News, he was the best. He was what I aspired to be. A few years ago, we worked together on an education special. We worked to tape the opening of the broadcast together on the set in the studio. It took me three takes to get it right. Plain and simple, standing next to Charles Kuralt, I was nervous. I was still in awe of this man and his talent.

But it was more than just his talent. It was more about the kind of person that he was. That's what came across on the air.

I would like to share with you this morning part of a letter I wrote to Charles when I learned that he was going to retire.

"Dear Charles: I want to wish you well on this next leg of your voyage and I wanted to tell you how special you've been. Last week in the Washington Post, Bob Schieffer called you a 'class act.' You represented the best of CBS News—those qualities and traditions that made me proud to join this organization 25 years ago.

"So much has changed since then, within and around us, but you have been a constant and, for that, I thank you. Thank you also for your understanding of people, particularly minorities and those not in the mainstream. I always felt that you would be comfortable eating dinner at a table with more than one black person. Unfortunately, in today's world, that's saying a lot. I guess part of that comes from your time in North Carolina, but I think it has more to do with the way you were raised there, the life that you've led, the man that you are."Finally, thank you for showing us all how to make a graceful exit from this television stage, and know that you will be missed.

"P.S.: The Knicks are playing on the 11th. Let me know if you can make the game."

Additional Tributes

Phil Scheffler | Dan Rather | Shad Northshield
Ed Bradley | Walter Cronkite | Bernie Birnbaum
Linda Mason | Missie Rennie | Mike Wallace
Andy Rooney

USA Today Editorial
Forgiving Charles Kuralt

The Book
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Nobel Peace Prize | Remembering | Sir Charles
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Letters To Ken McClure| David Brinkley on Charles Kuralt
Kuralt's Remarks At Hugh & Julia Morton's 50th Wedding Anniversary

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