Don Hewitt (1922-2009)

We Remember Don Hewitt

AFTRA award-winning producer, Don Hewitt passed away at his home in Bridgehampton, New York on Aug. 19.

Hewitt worked with CBS News from 1948 until his retirement in 2004. During the course of his monumental career, he directed the first televised presidential debate between Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy and the NASA space missions of the 1960s, before founding the ground-breaking news magazine show “60 Minutes” in 1968.

Hewitt’s vision of a news program that gave viewers hard-hitting and high-quality news coverage along with softer, personal interest stories was a tremendous success. Thanks to his demand for quality journalism, “60 Minutes” has been and continues to be a constant source of employment for AFTRA broadcast journalists.

In 2003, the AFTRA Foundation chose Hewitt to be the recipient of the George Heller Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to media and broadcasting at the very first annual AFTRA Media and Entertainment Excellence Awards (The AMEES) in New York. In 2008, he was awarded the Edward R. Murrow Award for Lifetime Achievement in Broadcast Journalism.

He is survived by his wife, Marilyn Berger, and four children.

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