William E. Geist is an American retired author, columnist, and television

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

Early life

Geist was born on May 10, 1945, in

Champaign, Illinois Champaign ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 88,302 at the 2020 census. It is the List of municipalities in Illinois, tenth-most populous municipality in Illinois and the fourth most populous city in ...

where he was also raised. He attended the

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

, graduating with a BA in Communications (1968). After graduation, he served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

as a combat photographer with the 1st Infantry Division in

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

, where he was awarded the

Bronze Star Medal The Bronze Star Medal (BSM) is a Awards and decorations of the United States Armed Forces, United States Armed Forces decoration awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces for either heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious a ...

. After returning to the United States, he attended the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...

, graduating with an MA in Communications (1971).

Career

Geist began his career in 1972 when he joined the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

''s '' Suburban Trib'' subsidiary, where he worked as a reporter and columnist until 1980. From 1980 until 1987, he was a columnist for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''; his "About New York" column appeared twice a week. In August 1987, he joined

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

as a correspondent, where he contributed to ''

CBS Evening News The ''CBS Evening News'' is the flagship evening News broadcasting#Television, television news program of CBS News, the news division of the CBS television network in the United States. The ''CBS Evening News'' is a daily evening broadcast featu ...

'', ''

60 Minutes II ''60 Minutes II'' (also known as ''60 Minutes Wednesday'' and ''60 Minutes'') is an American weekly primetime news magazine television program that was intended to replicate the "signature style, journalistic quality and integrity" of the origin ...

'' and

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the American sports programming division of Paramount Global that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried by its broadcast network CBS and streaming service Paramount+, as well as the operator of its cable channel CBS Sports N ...

. He appeared regularly on ''

CBS Sunday Morning ''CBS News Sunday Morning'' (frequently shortened to ''Sunday Morning'') is an American television newsmagazine that has aired on CBS since January 28, 1979. Created by Robert Northshield and E.S. "Bud" Lamoreaux III, and originally hosted by Ch ...

'' hosted by

Charles Kuralt Charles Bishop Kuralt (September 10, 1934 – July 4, 1997) was an American television, newspaper and radio journalist and author. He is most widely known for his long career with CBS, first for his "On the Road" segments on '' The CBS Evening ...

and

Charles Osgood Charles Osgood Wood III (January 8, 1933 – January 23, 2024) was an American radio and television commentator, writer, and musician. Osgood was best known both for being the host of ''CBS News Sunday Morning'', a role he held for over 22 year ...

, where he offered the

Everyman The everyman is a stock character of fiction. An ordinary and humble character, the everyman is generally a protagonist whose benign conduct fosters the audience's identification with them. Origin and history The term ''everyman'' was used ...

's perspective on American pop culture and current events. He announced his retirement on the program on September 16, 2018. Geist is the bestselling author of a number of books, including: * ''Toward a Safe & Sane Halloween & Other Tales of Suburbia'' (1985) * ''The Zucchini Plague and Other Tales of Suburbia'' (1987) * ''City Slickers'' (1990) * ''Little League Confidential: One Coach's Completely Unauthorized Tale of Survival'' (1992) * Monster Trucks and Hair in a Can: Who Says America Doesn't Make Anything Anymore? (1994) * ''The Big Five-Oh: Facing, Fearing, and Fighting Fifty'' (1997) * ''FORE! PLAY: The Last American Male Takes Up Golf'' (2001) * ''Way Off the Road: Discovering the Peculiar Charms of Small Town America'' (2007) * ''Lake of the Ozarks: My Surreal Summers in a Vanishing America'' (2019)

Awards and honors

Geist won an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

in 1992 and 2005. In 2011, he received a star on the

Hollywood Walk of Fame The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a landmark which consists of 2,813 five-pointed terrazzo-and-brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in the Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood dist ...

. In 2005, he was the commencement speaker at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

Personal life

Geist and his wife Jody (née Lewis), who were married in June 1970, live in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and have two children: Willie Geist, a television personality on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

and

MSNBC MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...

; and Libby Geist Wildes, a documentary film producer at ESPN. On July 1, 2012, Geist confirmed on ''

'' that he has

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor system, motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become ...

. On September 16, 2018, Geist announced his retirement on ''CBS Sunday Morning''.

References

External links

*
''CBS Sunday Morning''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Geist, Bill 1945 births Living people American newspaper reporters and correspondents American television reporters and correspondents American columnists American humorists Daytime Emmy Award winners University of Missouri alumni People from Champaign, Illinois People with Parkinson's disease University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Media alumni Journalists from Illinois United States Army personnel of the Vietnam War