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Bill Kurtis is well known to television viewers in the Chicago area. Although he has spent most of the last thirty plus years in Chicago, he is a native of Independence, Kansas. Bill graduated from the University of Kansas with a BS in Journalism in 1962 and received his Juris Doctor from Washburn University School of Law in 1966. After passing the Kansas Bar that same year, instead of going into the practice of law, he headed for Chicago where he became a TV reporter for Channel 2, the local CBS outlet. It was one of the most exciting times in our nation's history to be a reporter, for there was much news in the streets during the sixties. Practically every day brought some type of newsworthy demonstration, civil disturbance or political activity. For a young reporter from a relatively small Kansas town, this was an incredible educational opportunity. Kurtis made the most of it and by 1973 he had teamed up with Walter Jacobson to form one of the most dynamic TV anchor teams in the metropolitan area. As a team they established a formidable record for covering the news, and in the process Kurtis initiated several innovative practices which have become standards for the business today.
He became the first local "foreign correspondent," taking his reporting skills to world hot spots when international stories contained an element of special interest to Chicago. In 1975, he went to Vietnam two weeks before the fall of Saigon. Further trips followed breaking news stories: the sectarian war in Northern Ireland; the breakup of Rhodesia; and environmental and ecological tragedies such as the plight of the black rhino in Kenya and Tanzania.
In 1982, CBS asked him to anchor the "CBS Morning News" from New York and he also completed a series of hour-long documentaries for the prestigious network program "CBS Reports." Bill returned to Chicago in 1985 with a new dream of expanding traditional long-form journalism into new areas. This led to a host of new award winning documentaries on the A&E Network. Of particular interest to scientists has been the "New Explorers" series. This Award winning series highlights the exciting role of modern scientists as they pursue the never-ending adventure of discovery. In addition to A&E, reruns of the series will continue on PBS until the year 2000. Newsweek Magazine calls THE NEW EXPLORERS "Nova with an adrenaline rush."
Beyond these television programs, what is most admirable about Bill is his desire to make a difference for good in the community. Toward that end he has worked to establish a unique partnership between corporations, schools, museums and partner science institutions in order to create a new approach to teaching science in the classroom. This approach - called "The National Science Explorers Program" - is one of the top science teaching initiatives in the country today. It has been used as a part of the curriculum of the Chicago Public School System since 1991 and has been adopted by several communities across the country, including Washington, DC, Cincinnati, Boston, Berkeley, Atlanta and Somerville, N.J.
In addition to the New Explorers Series, many of his programs in the American Justice and Investigative Reports Series have dealt with science and technology issues as they affect the public. For all of these programs he has received many honors. For example, the NEW EXPLORERS series has received the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award, the Westinghouse-AAAS Award for Television, the National Education Association Award for the Advancement of Science for the Advancement of Learning through Broadcasting, and the Chicago Public Schools' Department of Instructional Support Award for Promoting Science, to name just a few of the many awards that have come to him during recent. He has of course, received many other awards for overall excellence in television journalism, covering a broad range of subject matter. We are honoring him with the Public Affairs Award for 1999 for his contributions not only to the enlightenment of schoolchildren, but also for helping to increase the overall understanding and appreciation of science by the general public.
Jim Shoffner and Barb Moriarty
Co-chairs, Public Affairs Committee
Chicago Section, American Chemical Society