Steve Kroft '71

Steve Kroft is an acclaimed broadcast journalist best known for his 30 years on 60 Minutes, where he reported nearly 500 stories and became the program’s longest-tenured correspondent. A five-time Peabody Award recipient, Kroft earned twelve Emmy Awards and conducted some of the most memorable interviews in broadcast history, including exclusive conversations with President Barack Obama, President Bill Clinton, and Hillary Clinton. His investigative reporting ranged from exposing insider trading in Congress to uncovering Saddam Hussein’s hidden assets and documenting the lasting dangers of Chernobyl.

Kroft’s path to journalism began after being drafted into the U.S. Army and sent to Vietnam, where he served as a correspondent-photographer for Stars and Stripes and hosted a radio program. After returning home, he earned a master’s degree from Columbia Journalism School before joining CBS News in 1980. His early assignments took him to El Salvador, Grenada, and India, where his reporting on the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi won him his first Emmy.

A graduate of Syracuse University, Kroft is also a proud alumnus of WAER, where he first explored radio.