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Obituaries

Lew Wood | 'Today' news anchor, 84

Lew Wood, 84, who marched with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., covered President John F. Kennedy's assassination, and was a news anchor for NBC's Today show during a broadcast career that began with the dawn of television, died of kidney failure Wednesday at a California hospice, his daughter Brigitte Wood said.

    Inquirer
    Published 

Lew Wood, 84, who marched with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., covered President John F. Kennedy's assassination, and was a news anchor for NBC's

Today

show during a broadcast career that began with the dawn of television, died of kidney failure Wednesday at a California hospice, his daughter Brigitte Wood said.

He was perhaps best known as a Today news anchor, succeeding Frank Blair in 1975. Mr. Wood left after a year, going into public relations. He stayed in that field until retiring in 2006.

Before taking the Today job, he had anchored the news for WNBC in New York and worked as a correspondent for CBS.

For the latter network he reported on the 1960s civil rights movement, accompanying King on one of his marches. He was also in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, reporting on Kennedy's campaign swing.

Mr. Wood had covered a breakfast speech Kennedy made in nearby Fort Worth, and snapped a personal photo of the president greeting well-wishers before Kennedy left for the Dallas motorcade where he would be fatally shot. After his departure, Wood headed to a restaurant for lunch, stopping briefly to check in with fellow correspondent Dan Rather, who was covering the motorcade.

In a remembrance posted on the website reportersnotebook.net, he recalled Rather telling him, "Hold On Lew - don't go away," then quickly coming back on the line to say the president had been shot and he should go to the hospital.

"Which he did," said Rather, who spoke warmly of Mr. Wood on Thursday, remembering him as both a fine reporter and collegial colleague. - AP

    Inquirer