Don McNeill

Don McNeill (1934 – June 27, 2015) was a Canadian journalist. He was a foreign correspondent for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and CBS News.

Life and career

He was born in 1934.[1] He was from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.[1] He studied at Memorial University of Newfoundland, the Technical University of Nova Scotia, and Oxford University.[1] At Oxford, he played basketball for an unofficial team he started.[1]

While in the United Kingdom, he worked for the Daily Mail.[1] After returning home to Canada, McNeill began working for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He was the CBC's correspondent in Washington, D.C. and worked for Newsmagazine.[1] He reported on the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal, and the Iranian Revolution for the CBC.[1] McNeil later moved to the United States, where he worked for CBS News until 1987.[1] He was the CBS News correspondent at Moscow.[1] He later worked for Christian Science Monitor Television.[1]

He got a Rhodes Scholarship in 1958.[1] He got a Nieman Fellowship in 1981.[1][2] In 1984, he won the George Polk Award for Network Television Reporting for his "unusual glimpses of Soviet life".[3] He was nominated for the 1988 News & Documentary Emmy Award for "Outstanding Interview/Interviewers - For Programs" as a producer and correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor Reports.[4] He won the 1990 News and Documentary Emmy Award for "Outstanding Informational, Cultural or Historical Programming (segments)" as a correspondent of a World Monitor segment on the Soviet Union.[1][5]

He was a journalism teacher at Boston University.[1]

His wife Sandra Allik produced her husband's Emmy-winning report.[1][5] She once said that his husband's award was "a bigger deal than an Emmy".[1]

He died on June 27, 2015 in Boston, aged 80.[1]

References

  1. 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 "N.L. native broke news from around the world". The Telegram (SaltWire Network). October 3, 2015. https://www.pressreader.com/canada/the-telegram-st-johns/20151003/281642483990305. Retrieved August 27, 2020. 
  2. Jim Stewart (June 22, 2015). ""A roman candle career": Jim Stewart, NF '81, reflects on the tough-minded reporting of his Nieman classmate, Donald McNeill.". Nieman Reports (Harvard University). 
  3. "14 Journalism Awards Announced by L.I.U." (in en-US). The New York Times. March 4, 1984. ISSN 0362-4331 . https://www.nytimes.com/1984/03/04/world/14-journalism-awards-announced-by-liu.html. Retrieved June 23, 2020. "Don McNeill, a Moscow-based CBS News correspondent, won the network television reporting award for providing what the citation said were unusual glimpses of Soviet life.". 
  4. National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (c. 1989). "1988 NATIONAL NEWS AND DOCUMENTARY EMMY AWARDS - THE NOMINATIONS" (in English). Press release. Archived from the original on 2018-07-28. https://web.archive.org/web/20180728150612/http://emmyonline.com/download/1988-Nomination_Winners.pdf. Retrieved 2020-08-27. 
  5. 5.0 5.1 National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (c. 1991). "THE NOMINATIONS - The 1990 News and Documentary Emmy Awards" (in English). Press release. Archived from the original on 2018-07-28. https://web.archive.org/web/20180728151425/http://emmyonline.com/download/1990-Nomination_Winners.pdf. Retrieved 2020-08-27.