Television legend Don Hewitt, the recipient of RTNDA's prestigious Paul White Award in 1987 and RTNDF's First Amendment Award in 2001 died on Wednesday at age 86.

Click here to read the RTNDA news release on Hewitt's passing

Click here for Hewitt's 2001 acceptance speech after receiving the First Amendment Award

From CBS News: Don Hewitt, recognized as a father of modern television news and the creator of the medium's most successful broadcast, 60 Minutes, died today. He was 86.

Hewitt was executive producer of CBS News, the title he took when he stepped down from 60 Minutes in 2004. For the past several years, he had been involved in a variety of broadcast projects, mostly outside of CBS, including producing a primetime documentary about the Radio City Music Hall's annual Christmas show.

Hewitt in an interview on 60 Minutes and working with Edward R. Murrow:

Hewitt's remarkable career in journalism spanned over 60 years, virtually all of it at CBS. As a young producer/director assisting at the birth of television news, it was usually Hewitt behind the scenes directing legendary CBS News reporters like Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, using a playbook he had to write himself. He played an integral role in all of CBS News' coverage of major news events from the late 1940s through the 1960s, putting him in the middle of some of history's biggest events, including one of politics’ seminal moments: the first televised presidential debate in 1960.

Click here to read the rest of the article

Click here to leave your memories of Don in our comments section

Click here to read the New York Times piece on Don