Former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw, one of the most trusted and respected figures in broadcast journalism, will deliver Fordham University’s 164th commencement address at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 16, on the Rose Hill campus.
A 47-year veteran of broadcast news, Brokaw served as evening news anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw from 1983 until 2004, delivering the day’s events to millions of Americans. During those 21 years, NBC Nightly News rose in the ratings against CBS and ABC to become the highest-ranking network news show—a distinction it still holds. By the time he passed the mantle to Brian Williams, Brokaw had become known as “America’s most watched anchor.”
The South Dakota native began his career in 1962 at KMTV in nearby Omaha, Neb. He soon joined NBC and rose to prominence as a local news anchor and national correspondent. Before being tapped for an evening anchor position, Brokaw served as co-anchor, with Jane Pauley, of NBC’sToday Show.
Brokaw has brought his news insight and integrity to an impressive number of world events. In the 1970s, as NBC’s White House correspondent, he covered the Watergate scandal and resignation of President Richard Nixon. In 1989, he reported from the scene of the collapse of the Berlin Wall. On Sept. 11, 2001, Brokaw followed the live attack on the World Trade Center for an entire day on the air, joined by Today Show co-anchors Katie Couric and Matt Lauer.
Most recently, Brokaw stepped in as interim moderator of Meet The Press when his friend and co-worker Tim Russert died unexpectedly in June 2008.
As a political reporter, Brokaw has interviewed every president since Lyndon Johnson and has covered every presidential election since 1968.
He also has initiated in-depth reporting on tough social and political issues at the core of contemporary American life, both at home and abroad. His work has explored race relations, AIDS, the war on terror, Los Angeles gangs, literacy, poverty, global warming, immigration and the evangelical movement.
Brokaw’s many achievements in journalism and reporting have earned him the Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award, a dozen Emmys, two Peabody awards and induction into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Brokaw also became a best-selling author with The Greatest Generation (Random House, 1998), a book about Americans who came of age during the Great Depression and fought in World War II. The book spent more than 80 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list.
Today, Brokaw serves as an NBC News special correspondent, providing expertise during breaking news events.
Fordham will present Brokaw with a doctorate of humane letters, honoris causa, and recognize four others with that honorary degree on May 16: Hon. Michael Bloomberg, mayor of the City of New York; Justin Lin, Ph.D., chief economist of the World Bank; Frank J. Macchiarola, former chairman of the New York City Charter Revision Commission; and Kathryn Wylde, chief executive officer of the Partnership for New York City.
Three others will be honored. Joel Klein, chancellor of the New York City Public School system, will receive a doctor of laws degree, honoris causa, on May 17 at Fordham Law School’s diploma ceremony; and Joe Moglia(FCRH ’71), chief executive officer of TD Ameritrade, will receive a doctorate of humane letters, honoris causa, on May 19 at the Graduate School of Business Administration’s diploma ceremony.Mindy Fullilove, M.D., professor of clinical psychiatry and clinical sociomedical sciences at Columbia University Medical Center, will deliver the keynote address on May 21 at the diploma ceremony for the Graduate School of Social Service.
Hon. Michael Bloomberg
Hon. Michael Bloomberg is the 108th Mayor of New York City. Elected to office in 2001, in his first term, Mayor Bloomberg cut crime; created jobs; unleashed a boom of affordable housing; implemented ambitious public health strategies, including the successful ban on smoking in restaurants and bars; gained control of the nation’s largest school district; and improved the efficiency of government.
In 2005, he was re-elected with the support of a broad coalition of voters. In his second term, while balancing the budget and driving unemployment to a record low, Mayor Bloomberg has taken on a number of new challenges. He launched an innovative program to combat poverty. He’s undertaken a far-reaching campaign to fight global warming. And as co-founder of a bipartisan coalition of more than 200 mayors from every region of the country, he is working to keep illegal guns out of the hands of criminals and off city streets.
Michael Bloomberg began a small start-up company called Bloomberg LP in 1981. Today, Bloomberg LP has over 250,000 subscribers to its financial news and information service. Headquartered in New York City, the company has 9,500 employees in more than 130 cities worldwide.
Justin Yifu Lin, Ph.D.
Justin Yifu Lin, Ph.D., was named World Bank chief economist and senior vice president on June 2, 2008, the first chief economist named from a developing country. A native of China, Lin has served for 15 years as a professor of economics and founding director of the China Center for Economic Research at Peking University. He has held a variety of public roles in his country, such as deputy of China’s People’s Congress and vice chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce. Twice, Lin has been awarded China’s highest honor for economics, the Sun Yefang Prize.
He earned his doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago in 1986. He is the author of 16 books, including The China Miracle: Development Strategy and Economic Reform (China University Press, 2003), and has published more than 100 articles in international journals and collected volumes.
Frank J. Macchiarola
Frank J. Macchiarola is chancellor and former president of St. Francis College in Brooklyn. Macchiarola’s professional career and public service has touched New York institutions far and wide. He served as New York City public schools chancellor from 1978 to 1983 and as president and chief executive officer of the New York City Partnership, Inc., from 1983 to 1988. He has held dean and/or faculty positions at several major metropolitan area universities, including the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University, Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business, and the City University of New York campuses at City College, Baruch and the Graduate School.
His most recent commitment to public service is as chair of the New York City Charter Revision Commission.
In 2003, Macchiarola was called upon by the city to help negotiate a fair settlement between the Local 802 Musicians Union and the League of American Theaters and Producers, after a strike shut down Broadway and cost the city millions in revenue.
Kathryn Wylde
Kathryn Wylde is president and chief executive officer of the Partnership for New York City, a nonprofit organization of the city’s business leaders that was established by David Rockefeller in 1979. She also founded the Housing Partnership Development Corporation and served as president from 1982 to 1996.
An internationally known expert in housing, economic development and urban policy, Wylde serves on the Mayor’s Sustainability Advisory Board, the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the New York City Leadership Academy and two New York-based research alliances, one on bioethics and one for the public schools. She is a native of Madison, Wis., and a graduate of St. Olaf College.
Joel Klein
Joel Klein has been chancellor of the New York City public school system since 2002. A New York City native and graduate of the New York City public school system, Klein initiated a comprehensive education reform program as chancellor that included ending social promotion in third, fifth, seventh, and eighth grades and giving principals greater control over how they run their schools while holding them accountable for results.
Klein is a former chairman and chief executive officer of Bertelsmann, Inc., one of the world’s largest media companies with annual revenues exceeding $20 billion. Prior to that commercial venture Klein served under President Bill Clinton as assistant attorney general in charge of the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust division. There he led the 700-lawyer division in cases against Microsoft, WorldCom/Sprint, Visa/Mastercard, and General Electric. He has been widely credited with transforming the antitrust division into one of the Clinton administration’s greatest successes.
Klein holds a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and a juris doctor degree from Harvard Law School.
Joseph Moglia
Joseph Moglia (FCRH ’71) is chairman of Ameritrade, which grew from a small “dot com” brokerage house to one of the most widely recognized names in financial services during his seven-year tenure as chief executive officer. During that time, the firm’s market capital grew from $700 million to $10 billion and Ameritrade shareholders enjoyed a triple-digit rate of return.
Prior to his career in finance Moglia had a 16-year career as a high school and university football coach.
Moglia holds a bachelor’s in economics from Fordham, where he made the Dean’s List and was a member of Omicron Delta Epsilon, the National Economic Honor Society. He is the author of Coach Yourself to Financial Success: Winning the Investment Game (Wiley, 2005) and has authored books and articles on football.
