{"id":1694,"date":"2013-10-18T10:33:48","date_gmt":"2013-10-18T15:33:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lamp1.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/?p=1694"},"modified":"2019-06-04T16:19:39","modified_gmt":"2019-06-04T21:19:39","slug":"memorial-dedication-to-celebrate-cronkites-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/2013\/10\/18\/memorial-dedication-to-celebrate-cronkites-birthday\/","title":{"rendered":"Memorial Dedication to Celebrate Cronkite’s Birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Missouri Western State University will dedicate an interactive memorial to one of St. Joseph\u2019s most illustrious native sons, Walter Cronkite. The public dedication ceremony of the Walter Cronkite Memorial will take place on November 4–what would have been the noted newsman\u2019s 97th<\/sup> birthday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWalter Cronkite is probably the most significant journalist of the 20th<\/sup> century,\u201d said Dr. Robert Vartabedian, Missouri Western\u2019s president. \u201cGenerations of Americans counted on him for reports on major events from World War II to the Kennedy assassination, the Civil Rights movement, the moon landing, Vietnam, Watergate and the Iran hostage crisis. He was respected by his colleagues and by the people he covered, and I\u2019m pleased that we\u2019re able to honor him in this way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cronkite anchored the \u201cCBS Evening News\u201d from 1962 to 1981, and was consistently named \u201cThe Most Trusted Man in America\u201d in public opinion polls. He was born in St. Joseph on Nov. 4, 1916, and remained closely connected to his hometown. In 1969 he returned to St. Joseph for a well-publicized speech to the Chamber of Commerce defending the freedom of the press in the face of pointed media criticism by members of the Nixon Administration.<\/p>\n

About the Event<\/p>\n

The public ceremony is scheduled for November 4, 2013 at 10:30 a.m in the atrium of Spratt Hall, Missouri Western State University, St. Joseph, Missouri. Other activities scheduled that day include a luncheon featuring Cronkite\u2019s cousin, former Kansas City Mayor Kay Cronkite Barnes, at 11:30 a.m. and an open house from 1 to 6 p.m.<\/p>\n

About the Memorial<\/p>\n

The Walter Cronkite Memorial will feature a large artwork designed by Eric Fuson and David Harris, faculty members in Missouri Western\u2019s Department of Art. The wall-hanging features 39 images of momentous events covered by Cronkite. An accompanying video kiosk will allow visitors to see and hear Cronkite\u2019s coverage of these events. The memorial will also feature a photo collage and timeline of Cronkite\u2019s life with a second video kiosk, a tribute to his wife, Betsy, a panoramic photo collage highlighting Cronkite\u2019s close association with the U.S. space program, a replica of a World War II glider that crash landed behind enemy lines with the famed newsman aboard, and a small display of memorabilia that has been donated or loaned.<\/p>\n

The permanent memorial will be free and open to the public. Possible future plans include a traveling memorial, an annual event celebrating the life of Walter Cronkite, and educational materials and study guides for visiting classes.<\/p>\n

Plan to Attend<\/p>\n

The public ceremony on Nov. 4 will be free and open to the public.<\/p>\n

The luncheon, featuring a talk by Kay Cronkite Barnes titled \u201cRemembering Walter,\u201d will cost $20. Reservations are due by Oct. 25. Call 816-271-5647 for information. Barnes, also born in St. Joseph, was the first female mayor of Kansas City, Mo., where she served two terms. She is currently Distinguished Professor for Public Leadership in Park University\u2019s Hauptmann School of Public Affairs and Founding Director of Park\u2019s Center for Leadership.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Note<\/strong>: This is a corrected version of a press release that was previously posted. This version corrects the cost of the luncheon to $20.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Missouri Western State University will dedicate an interactive memorial to one of St. Joseph\u2019s most illustrious native sons, Walter Cronkite. The public dedication ceremony of the Walter Cronkite Memorial will take place on November 4–what would have been the noted newsman\u2019s 97th birthday. \u201cWalter Cronkite is probably the most significant journalist of the 20th century,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[48],"tags":[279,780],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1694"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1694"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7746,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1694\/revisions\/7746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}