Legendary ABC News anchor and reporter Tom Jarriel, who gained prominence for his coverage of Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination and the Richard Nixon administration, has died, his family said Thursday.
He was 89.
Jarriel’s storied career spanned nearly 40 years after he joined the network in 1965, covering MLK’s murder three years later.
By 1969, he was promoted to Chief White House Correspondent, covering President Nixon and then President Gerald Ford, according to an obituary from ABC News.
A decade later, he became ABC’s Weekend Report anchor and then joined the channel’s upstart primetime news show, “20/20,” in which he reported on criminal justice reform and went toe to toe with leaders across the country.
He also did a series of reports on the plight of orphans in Romania that Jarriel called “the great, defining story of my career,” according to ABC News.
During his more than 20 years at “20/20” he won numerous awards, including six Emmy awards, ABC News wrote on Thursday.
He retired in 2002.
The broadcast legend leaves behind his wife of 57 years, Joan, and three sons.
“We honor the depth and breadth of Jarriel’s 38 years at ABC,” the network said.
“We celebrate his sense of fairness, of integrity, but most of all, his humanity.”
