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Veteran TV Personality & Journalist Hugh Downs, CCSU Robert C. Vance Distinguished Lecturer; April 12 NEW BRITAIN, CT- Hugh Downs, one of the most familiar American television figures in the history of the medium, is this year’s Robert C. Vance Distinguished Lecture speaker at Central Connecticut State University on Tuesday, April 12, at 7:30 p.m. in Welte Hall on the New Britain campus. The lecture is free and open to the public, but tickets are required. “Hugh Downs has dedicated his career to concentrating on issues of medicine, science, family, adventure, aging, space, and the arts,” said CCSU Interim President Robert N. Aebersold. “He has held with distinction a career in radio and television as a reporter, newscaster, interviewer, narrator, and host.” Nicholas Pettinico, Jr., vice president for institutional advancement and chair of the Vance Distinguished Lecture Series, said the series is supported by a grant from the Robert C. Vance Charitable Foundation. The series honors the late Robert C. Vance, a widely respected journalist who was editor and publisher of The Herald in New Britain from 1951 to 1959. Public tickets for the lecture (two per request) are required and are available on a limited, first-come, first-served basis. Please send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to: Robert C. Vance Distinguished Lecture, CCSU Foundation, Inc., P.O. Box 612, New Britain, CT 06050. Information about the reception and dinner prior to the lecture can be obtained by calling the Office of Institutional Advancement at (860) 832-1765. The CCSU
community is advised to request tickets at the earliest possible time.
Ticket requests will be honored until the supply is exhausted. Central
students with a valid CCSU identification card may pick up advance
tickets (one per student) at the Student Center Box Office. Hours are 7
a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday
and Sunday. Box Office telephone is (860) 832-1989. Born in Akron, Ohio, Hugh Downs began his broadcasting career as a radio announcer in Lima, Ohio at the age of 18. After serving in the U.S. Army, he joined NBC in Chicago as a staff announcer, and joined the Home Show in New York in 1954. From 1956-57, Mr. Downs was announcer for NBC’s Caesar's Hour starring Sid Caesar. In July 1957, he helped launch the TONIGHT Show with Jack Paar and stayed with the late-night series for five years. In August 1958 Mr. Downs became host of the daytime game program Concentration. Downs was host of NBC's TODAY Show from 1962 to 1971, interviewing statesmen and leaders from around the world. He hosted and narrated a number of NBC News documentaries and specials, including The American Wilderness (1971); The Everglades (for which he won an Emmy; The Ice People (1970); The Great Barrier Reef (1970); Survival on the Prairie (1970); and The First Americans (1969). Downs was anchor for ABC News' 20/20 from 1978 to 1999. Selections of Downs' widely acclaimed adventure stories and travels around the globe have been aired in special anniversary editions in 1988, 1993 and 1998. Included, among others, are segments on glider aerobatics, diving, marine archeology, the Great White Shark, and visits to underwater habitats; astronaut training with John Glenn to cover Sen. Glenn's return to space in 1998. In 1985 he was certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as holding the record for the greatest number of hours on network commercial television. Also in 1985, Downs hosted a three-hour ABC News Close up documentary, Growing Old in America, which examined the problems and harsh realities facing millions of America's aged and their families. Downs anchored a one-hour special, The Poisoning of America, in 1988 as part of the critically acclaimed Burning Questions series. This program explored in depth the problems and visible damage we are faced with on land, in the air and in water, and how these changes in the environment may affect our lives in the future. This special won Downs his second Emmy Award. Among a number of Emmy Awards Downs has received was one for his work as host of the PBS program Over Easy, a daytime Emmy Award for Live from Lincoln Center, which he hosted for a decade; and for a 1989 in-depth interview with Patty Duke about her struggle with manic depression. In 1990, Downs anchored a one-hour ABC News Special, Depression: Beyond the Darkness, which focused on a devastating illness that afflicts as many as 20 million Americans each year. The broadcast examined how the illness can be treated and how individual sufferers and their loved ones cope with the trouble it brings. In 1991 the American Psychiatric Association honored Downs with its Robert L. Robinson Award for his work on this Special. ARA Living Services presented Downs with its 1991 National Media Award for "excellence in long-term health care reporting" for his 20/20 segment on the problems families face when attempting to place loved ones in quality-care nursing homes. He also is the author of ten books. His books display an enormous range of interests and experiences: Yours Truly, Hugh Downs which he describes as "a premature autobiography" (Holt, Rinehart & Winston); Rings Around Tomorrow, a collection of science articles he authored for science periodicals (Doubleday); A Shoal of Stars, his account of sailing a 65-foot ketch across the Pacific (Doubleday); Potential, a study of human emotional maturity; Thirty Dirty Lies about Old, which debunks the myths about aging; The Best Years Book a manual on late years' planning; On Camera: My 10,000 Hours on Television; Fifty to Forever a philosophy and planning guide for later years; Perspectives, a collection of more than 50 of his best received essays on ABC Radio; My America: What America Means to Me through the Eyes of 150 People of High Visibility, published by Scribner/Simon & Schuster, shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11,2001. His most recent book is titled, Letter to a Great Grandson, inspired by his grandson's new son. Downs lectures throughout the country on a wide range of subjects. He has honorary doctorate degrees from St. John's University, the University of Maryland, Daniel Webster College in Nashua, New Hampshire, North Adams State College, Massachusetts, Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, and Hunter College of the City University of New York. Among his musical compositions published and performed are "An Elegiac Prelude in A Minor" (1948), "An Old Familiar Air Which Owns Its Own Tuxedo and Will Travel" (1958, recorded by pianist John Bell Young on the Americus label), and a cello piece premiered in St. Louis in May of 2002 by Yo Yo Ma and the St. Louis Symphony. He is the recipient of the National Headliner Award of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, the 1985 Award of Merit from the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the National Council on Family Relations Film Award for his 20/20 report, Diet Unto Death: Anorexia Nervosa; The Carr van Anda Award for "enduring contribution to journalism," and Emerson College's Joseph E. Connor Award. Downs is a former chair of the Research and Education Committee of the Geriatrics Advisory Council of Mount Sinai Medical Center, is a member of the Board of Overseers of the Brookdale Center on Aging of Hunter College, chairs the Board of Governors of the National Space Society, and is chair emeritus of the United States Fund for UNICEF. He and his wife, Ruth, make their home in Paradise Valley, Arizona. They have two children and two grandchildren. ### |
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