Dan Rather Biography and Wiki

Dan Rather is an American journalist and former national evening news anchor. Rather began his career in Texas, becoming a national name after his reporting saved thousands of lives during Hurricane Carla in September 1961. He spontaneously created the first radar weather report by overlaying a transparent map over a radar image of Hurricane Carla. In his first national broadcast, he helped initiate the successful evacuation of 350,000 people.

Dan Rather Age

Dan is 88 years old as of 2019. He was born as Dan Irvin Rather Jr. on October 31, 1931, Wharton, Texas, U.S.

Dan Rather Birthday

Dan celebrates his birthday on October 31 every year and his birth sign is Scorpio.

Dan Rather Height and Weight

Dan stands at ane estimated height of 5′ 11″ which is equivalent to 1.81m. He has not shared his date of birth with the public, as it is not documented anywhere as of 2020.

Dan Rather Early Life and Education

Dan attended Lovett Elementary School and Hamilton Middle School. He graduated in 1950 from John H. Reagan High School in Houston. In 1953, Rather earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Sam Houston State Teachers College in Huntsville, where he was editor of the school newspaper, The Houstonian.

He was also a member of the Caballeros, the founding organization of the Epsilon Psi chapter of the Sigma Chi fraternity. While in college, Rather worked for KSAM-FM radio in Huntsville, calling junior high, high school, and Sam Houston State football games.

After obtaining his undergraduate degree, Rather briefly attended South Texas College of Law in Houston. In January 1954, Rather enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and was sent to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego. He was soon discharged, however, because he was found to have had rheumatic fever as a child, a fact he had omitted.

Dan Rather Family

Dan Rather Parents

Dan is the son of Daniel Irvin Rather Sr., a ditch digger and pipe layer, and the former Byrl Veda Page. The Rathers moved to Houston when he was a child,

Dan Rather Siblings

Dan has two siblings: Donald Eugene Rather and Patricia Rather.

Dan Rather Wife, Is Dan Rather married?

Dan is married to Jean Goebel. The couple tied the knot in 1957.

Dan Rather Wife and Kids, Jean Goebel Kids

The couple has a son and daughter, and maintains homes in New York City and Austin, Texas. Their daughter Robin Rather is an environmentalist and community activist in Austin, Texas. Their son Dan Rather is an assistant district attorney in the District Attorney’s office in Manhattan, New York.

Dan Rather Net Worth

Dan has an estimated net worth of $70 million dollars as of 2020. This includes his assets, money, and income. His primary source of income is his career as a Journalist. Through his various sources of income, Dan has been able to accumulate a good fortune but prefers to lead a modest lifestyle.

Dan Rather Measurements and Facts

Here are some interesting facts and body measurements you should know about Dan.

Dan Rather Bio and Wiki

• Full Names: Dan Irvin Rather Jr
• Popular As: Dan Rather
• Gender: Male
• Occupation / Profession: Journalist
• Nationality: American
• Race / Ethnicity: To be Updated
• Religion: Christianity
• Sexual Orientation: Straight

Dan Rather Birthday

• Age / How Old?: 88 years
• Zodiac Sign: Scorpio
• Date of Birth: October 31, 1931
• Place of Birth: Wharton, Texas, U.S.
• Birthday: October 31

Dan Rather Body Measurements

• Body Measurements: To be Updated
• Height / How Tall?: 1.81m
• Weight: Average
• Eye Color: To be Updated
• Hair Color: Blonde
• Shoe Size: To be Updated

Dan Rather Family and Relationship

• Father (Dad): Daniel Irvin Rather Sr.
• Mother: Byrl Veda Page
• Siblings (Brothers and Sisters): Donald Eugene Rather and Patricia Rather.
• Marital Status: Married
• Wife/Spouse: Married to Jean Goebel
• Dating / Girlfriend: Not Applicable
• Children: Robin Rather, Dan Rather

Dan Rather Net Worth and Salary

• Net Worth: $70 million
• Salary:  Under Review
• Source of Income: Journalism Career

Dan Rather House and Cars

• Place of living: United States
• Cars: Car Brand to be Updated

Dan Rather Journalist

Rather tried to land a job at the Houston Chronicle newspaper, but he was a poor speller—print journalists of the era needed to be able to write quickly with few errors. His on-air talents were noticed by his station bosses. He was made KTRH’s news director in 1956. Three years later, he moved on to the relatively new medium of television as a reporter for KTRK-TV, also in Houston. In January 1960, he became news director for another Houston television station, KHOU, which was an affiliate of CBS.

By this time he had married Jean Goebel, whom he met when she was hired as a secretary at KTRH, and they had two small children. Rather’s career moved to a national level thanks to a terrible tropical storm. In September 1961, Hurricane Carla headed toward the American coastline along the Gulf of Mexico. It hit at full force near Galveston, Texas, and became one of the worst storms ever to reach the U.S. mainland. Rather and his team were the only live television news source broadcasting from Galveston when Carla hit, and he delivered one of his reports by hanging onto a palm tree.

Rather also persuaded the director of the local weather-reporting station to let his crew put a television camera in front of the radar screen, which tracked storms from high above Earth’s atmosphere. “That day,” noted Cartwright, “viewers saw something they had never seen on live television: the image of a four-hundred-mile-wide hurricane superimposed over a map of the Texas Gulf Coast. The coverage spurred a mass evacuation of the coast and probably saved thousands of lives.”

Rather’s fearless reporting earned the attention of CBS executives in New York City and forever earned him the nickname “Hurricane Dan” among his professional colleagues in the media. Shortly after Hurricane Carla, he was promoted to serve as the network’s national news correspondent for its southwestern bureau, which included several southern U.S. states as well as Mexico and Central America. On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy (1917–1963; served 1961–63) was assassinated.

Dan also anchored the CBS Weekend News. In 1975, he became a correspondent on the highly rated newsmagazine 60 Minutes. When veteran CBS news journalist Walter Cronkite (1916–) announced that he would retire as the anchor of CBS’s flagship broadcast, the CBS Evening News, Rather was named his successor. It was a tremendous accomplishment, for Cronkite was a giant among broadcast journalists of his era and regularly cited in U.S. public opinion polls as the most trusted person in television news. Rather made his debut on the CBS Weekend News on March 9, 1981, and retired exactly twenty-four years later. His tenure made him the longest-serving anchor of a nightly national newscast in U.S. media history.

But Rather was not always at the desk. Again, he took his camera crews to the field and reported from around the world to cover breaking stories and planned events, too. In September 1987, he was in Miami to cover the visit of Pope John Paul II (1920–2005) to that city, but that day his broadcast was to follow CBS Sports’s coverage of the U.S. Open tennis match. When one of the games ran into overtime, the network decided to keep it on the air and not switch over to the CBS Evening News. Angered, Rather walked off the set to call his boss, the president of CBS News, but then the match ended unexpectedly just two minutes into the hour, and Rather was missing when the cameras began rolling. He was gone for over six minutes in what is known in live radio and television broadcasting as “dead air.”

Dan Rather Stalkers

Rather was a victim of one of the strangest celebrity-stalking incidents of the modern age. One night in October 1986, he was returning from dinner at a friend’s house and walking along Park Avenue in a relatively high-class part of New York City. He was approached by two men, one of whom punched him in the jaw; when Rather ran off, he was chased into a building and kicked. His attacker repeatedly asked him, “Kenneth, what is the frequency?” The assailant, or pair of assailants, ran off.

The odd incident inspired a song by alternative rock group R.E.M., “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?” and Rather even joined the band once on stage and sang it with lead singer Michael Stipe. In 1997, a man in prison for the 1994 murder of an NBC stagehand outside the Today Show told his prison psychiatrist that he had attacked Rather back in 1986. Shown photographs of the prisoner, Rather identified William Tager as his attacker. Tager had believed that the news media were trying to send him coded messages, and the matter seemed to rest with that confession.

In 2001, Harper’s magazine published a piece by Paul Allman that posed several semi-comical questions about the “Kenneth” incident. Allman pointed out that the writer Donald Barthelme (1931–), sometimes called the father of postmodern literary American fiction, had once written a short story containing the phrase “What’s the frequency?” as well as the name “Kenneth.” In another story of Barthelme’s, there is an arrogant “editor-king” named Mr. Lather. Allman’s article, and a subsequent stage play produced in New York City, hinted that Barthelme possibly may have been connected to the attack.

Allman pointed out that both Barthelme and Rather were Texas natives, born just six months apart, and both had worked in Houston early in their careers—Barthelme as a reporter for the Houston Post, while Rather was a radio newsperson. “Is it possible that they could not have known each other, or of each other, in the Houston of the late 1950s and early 1960s?” Allman wondered. “That they could not have attended the same journalistic functions? Or that Rather, the rising star, could not have been the object of envy and speculation on the part of his peers?”

Dan Rather Controversies

As a national news reporter, Rather went on to cover some of the most important news stories of the era, including the Vietnam War (1954–75; a controversial war in which the United States aided South Vietnam in its fight against a takeover by Communist North Vietnam) and the series of scandals known as Watergate, which forced the resignation of two-term Republican President Richard M. Nixon (1913–1994; served 1969–74). Rather’s aggressive coverage of the Watergate story brought some criticism. He was condemned by Nixon supporters for what they viewed as his liberal bias or favoritism toward Democratic politics. The unofficial code of ethics for journalists calls for them to remain neutral in their news reporting.

Rather had an infamous exchange with Nixon that caused hundreds of viewers to call or write CBS headquarters in New York City and demand that the network fire him. At a National Association of Broadcasters convention in Houston in March 1974, Nixon was part of one day’s program of events. Rather rose to ask the president a question, and some other journalists began booing Rather—but others quickly responded with applause. Taken by surprise at the outburst, Nixon asked Rather, “Are you running for something?” according to Ken Auletta in the New Yorker. Rather’s response, as quoted by Auletta, was “No, sir, Mr. President. Are you?”

The remark was viewed by some as disrespectful, and there were rumors that CBS executives were indeed thinking about firing him for such a daring breach of press–presidential etiquette. Instead, Rather was taken off the White House beat, and he spent a few years producing documentaries for the network in New York City. Rather was again criticized for his behavior, and even other journalists called him unprofessional. The incident returned to the headlines several months later, when Rather was interviewing George H.W. Bush (1924–), who was serving as Republican vice president under Ronald Reagan (1911–2004; served 1981–89).

At the time, the Reagan White House was involved in a political scandal known as the Iran-Contra affair, in which some members of the administration were linked to the illegal sale of arms to Iran, an enemy of the United States, in order to finance secret operations in Central America. On the air, Rather questioned Bush relentlessly, as was his style, and the exchange became heated. Finally, according to the New Yorker, the vice president responded, “It’s not fair to judge my whole career by a rehash

Dan Rather delivered his final broadcast in March 2005, just one year shy of his twenty-fifth anniversary as the CBS Evening News anchorman. AP/Wide World Photos. Rather was accused of showing disrespect to the highest elected officials in the nation, and particularly to Republicans. His daily newscasts were even monitored on a Web site, RatherBiased.com, which tracked the news anchor’s alleged lack of impartiality. “I do have my biases,” Rather joked in an interview with Auletta in the New Yorker, “such as I’m hard to herd and impossible to stampede,” meaning he won’t follow the crowd or be pushed over.

That stubbornness was widely suspected of spurring Rather’s somewhat unexpected decision to retire from CBS Evening News, which was announced in November 2004. Two months earlier, Rather delivered a report on 60 Minutes II that was based on a series of recently uncovered documents related to George W. Bush’s (1946–) service in the Texas Air National Guard between 1968 and 1973. One of the documents was a memo that seemed to confirm rumors that a young Bush had received special treatment thanks to his family connections.

During the Vietnam War era, there was a draft that required young men to register for possible military service; one way to avoid being sent to fight overseas was to serve instead at home in a National Guard unit, which generally required a weekend of service each month at a training camp in one’s home state. Rather’s report about Bush’s record, which seemed to show that the future president often failed to report for Guard duty, was a major journalistic triumph. Most of the major U.S. news organizations had long tried to find documents that would prove the rumors true about Bush’s record. Almost immediately, however, the authenticity of the documents was questioned.

Dan Rather Political Views

Rather called on Bush to answer the lingering questions about his military service, and he mentioned on CBS Evening News that “partisan political operatives” seemed to be behind the controversy over his report, according to a New York Observer article by Joe Hagan. In an interview with Hagan, Rather defended his 60 Minutes II staff who had put together the story, and he pointed out that the debate seemed rather fishy. “If you can’t deny the information,” he theorized in the interview, “then attack and seek to destroy the credibility of the messenger, the bearer of the information.” Rather stood by the report and his staff, but CBS called for an independent investigation into the matter. In the end, four members of the 60 Minutes II team, including Rather’s longtime producer, lost their jobs.

In November 2004, not long after the independent review panel was summoned, Rather announced his decision to retire from the CBS Evening News. His last broadcast came in March 2005, a full year ahead of his twenty-fifth anniversary, which he had often said would be his retirement date. Some media analysts and critics of Rather’s claimed the National Guard story was the real reason behind the decision, and more moderate voices noted that the rush to get the story on the air without first verifying the authenticity of the documents was merely a sign of the decline of network news. Others called it a triumph of amateur blog (Web log) journalists, who had rushed to post stories questioning the authenticity of the documents while the 60 Minutes II broadcast was still on the air.

Though Rather officially retired from the CBS Evening News anchor desk, he continued to serve as a 60 Minutes II correspondent. Just before his final broadcast, after twenty-four years on the air, Rather reflected on his long career as CBS’s leading newsperson. “My hope has always been, for all my flaws and weaknesses,” he told Cartwright in Texas Monthly, “that people will say this: ‘He wanted to be a reporter and he is.’ I think they know that I love this country.”

Sam Houston State University renamed its mass communications building after Rather in 1994. The building houses The Houstonian and KSHU, the student-run radio and television stations. In May 2007, Rather received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Siena College in Loudonville, New York, for his lifetime contributions to journalism.

Dan Rather Columnist

A columnist whose work is distributed by King Features Syndicate, Dan continues to speak out against alleged influence in journalism by corporations and governments. At a 2008 conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, sponsored by the group Free Press, Rather criticized both local and national news organizations, stating – according to reports – that there is no longer incentive to do “good and valuable news.”

Dan Rather The Big Interview

Dan is the host of the television show: The Big Interview. He he interviews major and famous celbrities. In 2020 it entered into its 8th season. Near the end of his own career after leaving CBS News in a cloud of controversy, Rather soon was signed by AXS TV.

In 2013 his show kicked off with interviews of stars including Roger Daltrey and Linda Ronstadt. This foreshadowed a trend of Rather getting an increasing proportion of rock stars, even though he says of himself that he missed the Rock & Roll bandwagon until he was much older.

Dan Rather Books

• 1974: he Palace Guard, with Gary Paul Gates
• 1977: The Camera Never Blinks: Adventures of a TV Journalist, with Mickey Herskowitz
• 1991: I Remember, with Peter Wyden
• 1994: The Camera Never Blinks Twice: The Further Adventures of a Television Journalist, with Mickey Herskowitz
• 2001: “The American Dream: Stories from the Heart of Our Nation”
• 2013: Rather Outspoken : My Life in the News., with Digby Diehl
• 2017: What Unites Us: Reflections on Patriotism, with Elliot Kirschner

Dan Rather Awards and Achievements

Dan is undoubtedly a fine journalist. He has received numerous Emmy Awards, several Peabody Awards, and various honorary degrees from universities. His other awards include:

• 1975: Peabody-CBS News
• 1976: Peabody-60 Minutes
• 1994: Peabody-CBS Reports: D-Day
• 1995: Peabody-CBS Reports: In the Killing Fields of America
• 1997: Paul White Award-Lifetime Achievement
• 2000: Peabody-48 Hours: Heroes Under Fire
• 2001: Peabody-60 Minutes II Memories if a Massacre
• 2004: Peabody-60 Minutes II: Abuse at Abu Ghraib
• 2014: Emily Trustees Award-Lifetime Achievement

Frequently Asked Questions About Dan Rather

Who is Dan Rather?

Dan Rather is an American journalist and former national evening news anchor. Rather began his career in Texas, becoming a national name after his reporting saved thousands of lives during Hurricane Carla in September 1961.

How old is Dan Rather?

Dan is 88 years old as of 2019. He was born as Dan Irvin Rather Jr. on October 31, 1931, Wharton, Texas, U.S.

How tall is Dan Rather?

Dan stands at ane estimated height of 5′ 11″ which is equivalent to 1.81m. He has not shared his date of birth with the public, as it is not documented anywhere as of 2020.

What nationality is Dan Rather?

Dan is an American national.

How many siblings does Dan Rather have?

Dan has two siblings: Donald Eugene Rather and Patricia Rather.

Is Dan Rather married?

Yes, Dan is married to Jean Goebel. The couple tied the knot in 1957.

How much is Dan Rather worth?

Following his professional career as a journalist, Dan had been able to accumulate an estimated net worth $70 million.

Is Dan Rather dead or alive?

Dan is still alive and in good health. There have been no reports of her being sick or having any health-related issues.

Where does Dan Rather live?

He is a resident of New York City and Austin, Texas, we shall upload pictures of his house as soon as we have them.

Dan Rather Social Media Contacts

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• Tom Brokaw
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Reference:

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