Charles Osgood, who anchored CBS Sunday Morning for 22 years, died January 23 at home in New Jersey. He was 91 and suffered from dementia.
Osgood spent 45 years at CBS News before he retired in 2016.
“Charles Osgood is one of the legendary journalists who made CBS News what it is today,” said Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews, president of CBS News, on CBSNews.com. “His commitment to the craft, especially to the art of writing, left an indelible impression on the field. He was a mentor and friend to many. His impact will be felt on CBS News for decades to come.”
He had succeeded Charles Kuralt as host of CBS Sunday Morning. Jane Pauley succeeded Osgood in 2016.
“For years now people — even friends and family — have been asking me why I keep doing this considering my age,” Osgood said when he retired. “It’s just that it's been such a joy doing it! Who wouldn't want to be the one who gets to introduce these terrific storytellers and the producers and writers and others who put this wonderful show together?”
He was born in New York City in 1933 and grew up in Baltimore, Philadelphia and New Jersey. He graduated from Fordham in 1954, where he worked on the radio station, WFUV.
He started as a classical music DJ at WGMS in Washington, D.C. He later joined the Army and its Washington-D.C.-based band.
Osgood left the Army in 1958 and returned to WGMS, before being tapped as general manager for cable channel WHCT in Hartford. In 1963 he shifted to ABC Radio in New York as a general assignment reporter. Beginning in 1967, Osgood was an anchor-reporter for WCBS NewsRadio 88 in New York, and later moved to television.
Besides CBS Sunday Morning, Osgood worked on virtually every broadcast within CBS News, including CBS Morning News, CBS Evening News with Dan Rather and CBS Sunday Night News. He also hosted the radio program The Osgood File.
Osgood was referred to as the poet-in-residence at CBS News, and played piano, organ, banjo and violin. He was also a composer and a singer. He performed at times with The New York Pops, The Boston Pops and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
Osgood was inducted into the Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame in 2000.
He authored many books, including A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White House, Nothing Could Be Finer Than a Crisis That Is Minor in the Morning, There's Nothing I Wouldn't Do if You Would Be My POSSLQ, Osgood on Speaking: How to Think on Your Feet Without Falling on Your Face and Defending Baltimore Against Enemy Attack.
Osgood is survived by his wife of 50 years, the former Jean Crafton, and five children.
