Don Hewitt Dies At 86

Don S. Hewitt died he was 86 (born Donald Hewitt,) Hewitt was an American television news producer and executive, best known for creating 60 Minutes, the CBS news magazine in 1968, currently the longest-running prime time broadcast on American television.^[1] He died at home in Bridgehampton, New York.(December 14, 1922 - August 19, 2009)

He attended New Rochelle High School in New Rochelle, New York, and wrote for the school newspaper. Hewitt attended New York University and started his journalism career in 1942 as head copyboy for the New York Herald Tribune.

He started at CBS News in 1948 and served as producer-director of the network's evening news broadcast for 14 years. He was also the first director of the landmark documentary news program See It Now, coproduced by host Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly. In 1960 Hewitt was the director of the Presidential debates between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy. Hewitt later became executive producer of the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. He then began the 8-time Emmy winning show 60 Minutes Hewitt was a familiar face in the infamous tobacco industry scandal involving Brown and Williamson and 60 Minutes. He was portrayed in the film The Insider by actor Philip Baker Hall.

Hewitt stepped aside as executive producer in 2004 at 81. He is an eight-time Emmy Award winner. Hewitt is the author of Tell Me a Story: Fifty Years and 60 Minutes in Television, in which he chronicles his life as a newsman. He is also the author of the book Minute by Minute, a look at the history of 60 Minutes. On April 3, 2008, Hewitt was honored with Washington State University's Edward R. Murrow Award for Lifetime Achievement in Broadcast Journalism.

He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in March 2009.^[2]

Hewitt died on August 19, 2009. ^[3]