Legendary television journalist Walter Cronkite died Friday evening, leaving students and faculty in the University’s journalism and mass communication school to grieve the man they say was instrumental in making it one of the nation’s top journalism schools.

“It was a great loss for everyone in journalism and certainly for our students and staff,” said Chris Callahan, dean of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. “Walter worked very closely with the school to build that program into what I’d say is the best journalism school in the country.”

Katie Raml, a Cronkite School alumna who now works as a broadcast reporter for local ABC affiliate KNXV, said Cronkite’s occasional guest lectures at the school left a great impression on her.

“He was very raw about what it was like to cover stories and really didn’t hold anything back,” Raml said. “There were just so many chances for us to ask him specific questions.”

Because of health issues, Cronkite had not been able to lecture at the University in two years, but current students said they still felt the significance of his passing.

“The school kind of modeled itself up to his values,” public relations senior Brittany Hays said. “Now that we don’t have a living icon, we have to look at his work in order to live up to those standards.”

Public relations senior Stephanie Dembowski said the late broadcaster’s presence is still felt in the school that bears his name.

“I think everyone at this school looks up to him because of the high esteem he was held in and the values he stood for,” she said.

Hays and Dembowski said they associate Cronkite with such values as integrity, honesty and accuracy.

Cronkite, 92, was the longtime anchor of the news program “CBS Evening News.” During his tenure, it was the highest-rated news broadcast in the United States. He was highly regarded as an honest, unbiased source by much of the viewing public.

According to the Associated Press, Cronkite was named the “most trusted man in America” in two national polls — one in 1972 and one in 1974.

Cronkite’s time at CBS saw some of the most pivotal moments in American history, including the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and President John F. Kennedy. In 1968, he famously said the United States was “mired in a stalemate” in the Vietnam War, a statement many believe was instrumental in turning public opinion against the conflict.

Cronkite school professor Steve Doig said Cronkite’s death, and the rapidly-changing state of the journalism field brought on by the rise of online media, would not keep the school from passing his ideals of fairness, accuracy and objectivity on to future students.

“His core beliefs, the ones we continue to espouse, deal with the practice of journalism,” Doig said. “I don’t see his passing as a license for the school to begin backing from our ideals.”

Cronkite began his involvement with ASU in 1984, when Tom Chauncey, the owner of Phoenix's CBS affiliate and an advocate for high-quality journalism education at ASU, approached Cronkite with the proposal to start an endowment fund in his name and re-name the school in his honor.

Callahan said Cronkite's guidance helped transform the school of journalism and mass communication from a “fairly small, regional program” to one of the nation’s most highly-acclaimed journalism schools.

“We’ve had this wonderful relationship with the person I would describe as the preeminent journalist of our time,” Callahan said. “He truly believed [the Cronkite School] was going to be one of his great legacies.”

Reach the reporter at derek.quizon@asu.edu

Share your memories of Cronkite on the Cronkite School remembrance page.