Tom Brokaw has had a distinguished journalism career. He is the only journalist who can say that. He has served as an anchor on the NBC news programs “Today,” “Meet the Press,” and “NBC Nightly News.” He covered news issues like Watergate and the killing of Robert F. Kennedy over his career, but a career doesn’t continue forever.
Brokaw made the announcement that he was retiring after 55 years in January 2021. This information was delivered years after he was given a diagnosis for the condition he had been battling.
Multiple myeloma is a form of blood cancer that Brokaw identified in 2013. He battled the illness for years while continuing to work.
“I kept hoping horrible things wouldn’t happen to me,” Brokaw said in a recent interview with his friend and former coworker Jane Pauley. “But as I got older, I started to get this illness. And you endeavor to exert as much influence over it as you can.”
In his interview with “CBS Sunday Morning,” Brokaw discussed his fight against this terminal form of blood cancer. Additionally, he discussed Red Brokaw, his father, and his most recent book, “Never Give Up: A Prairie Family’s Story.”
Brokaw stated that despite being 83 years old, his doctors did not anticipate him living this long when he was originally diagnosed ten years ago. He talked openly about how his diagnosis forced him to change his way of living.
“I had to give up my daily activity with NBC,” Brokaw stated. “You see, they were moving away from me, so I had to do the same. Simply put, I was not the same person. I was, therefore, kind of out there, you know, in a location I had never been in my life, for the first time in my life.”
Brokaw spoke about his past and also brought up an anecdote involving Pauley. In actuality, Pauley’s future husband, cartoonist Garry Trudeau, was introduced to her by Brokaw and his wife Meredith during a game of matchmaking. Brokaw recalled saying to his wife, “Boy, Garry is really a good friend, he’s at the office often.” His wife said, “It’s not about you; he wants to meet Jane.” As they say, the rest is history.
