Charles Kuralt Early life and career Where was he born? Kuralt was born in Wilmington, North Carolina. Did he go to school? Later, at Charlotte's Central High School, Kuralt was voted "Most Likely to Succeed. Did he attend college? After graduation from Central High School in 1951, he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Did he do well there? While there, he appeared in a starring role in a radio program called "American Adventure: A Study Of Man In The New World"
Was that the start of his career?
Was the starring role in the radio program called "American Adventure: A Study Of Man In The New World" the start of Charles Kuralt's career?
Kuralt was born in Wilmington, North Carolina. As a boy, he won a children's sports writing contest for a local newspaper by writing about a dog that got loose on the field during a baseball game. Charles' father, Wallace H. Kuralt. Sr., moved his family to Charlotte in 1945, when he became Director of Public Welfare in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Their house off Sharon Road, then 10 miles south of the city, was the only structure in the area. During the years he lived in that house, Kuralt became one of the youngest radio announcers in the country. Later, at Charlotte's Central High School, Kuralt was voted "Most Likely to Succeed." In 1948, he was named one of four National Voice of Democracy winners at age 14, where he won a $500 scholarship.  After graduation from Central High School in 1951, he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he became editor of The Daily Tar Heel and joined St. Anthony Hall. While there, he appeared in a starring role in a radio program called "American Adventure: A Study Of Man In The New World" in the episode titled "Hearth Fire", which aired on August 4, 1955. It is a telling of the advent of TVA's building lakes written by John Ehle and directed by John Clayton.  After graduating from UNC, Kuralt worked as a reporter for the Charlotte News in his home state, where he wrote "Charles Kuralt's People," a column that won him an Ernie Pyle Award. He moved to CBS in 1957 as a writer, where he became well known as the host of the Eyewitness to History series. He traveled around the world as a journalist for the network, including stints as CBS's Chief Latin American Correspondent and then as Chief West Coast Correspondent.  In 1967, Kuralt and a CBS camera crew accompanied Ralph Plaisted in his attempt to reach the North Pole by snowmobile, which resulted in the documentary To the Top of the World and his book of the same name. CANNOTANSWER
After graduating from UNC, Kuralt worked as a reporter for the Charlotte News in his home state, where he wrote "Charles Kuralt's People,"
Charles Bishop Kuralt (September 10, 1934 – July 4, 1997) was an American journalist. He is most widely known for his long career with CBS, first for his "On the Road" segments on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, and later as the first anchor of CBS News Sunday Morning, a position he held for fifteen years.

Kuralt's "On the Road" segments were recognized twice with personal Peabody Awards. The first, awarded in 1968, cited those segments as heartwarming and "nostalgic vignettes"; in 1975, the award was for his work as a U.S. "bicentennial historian"; his work "capture[d] the individuality of the people, the dynamic growth inherent in the area, and ... the rich heritage of this great nation." He shared in a third Peabody awarded to CBS News Sunday Morning.

Early life and career
Kuralt was born in Wilmington, North Carolina. As a boy, he won a children's sports writing contest for a local newspaper by writing about a dog that got loose on the field during a baseball game.  Charles' father, Wallace H. Kuralt. Sr., moved his family to Charlotte in 1945, when he became Director of Public Welfare in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.  Their house off Sharon Road, then 10 miles south of the city, was the only structure in the area.  During the years he lived in that house, Kuralt became one of the youngest radio announcers in the country. Later, at Charlotte's Central High School, Kuralt was voted "Most Likely to Succeed." in his graduating class of 1951.  In 1948, he was named one of four National Voice of Democracy winners at age 14, where he won a $500 scholarship.

After graduation he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he became editor of The Daily Tar Heel and joined St. Anthony Hall. While there, he appeared in a starring role in a radio program called American Adventure: A Study of Man in The New World in the episode titled "Hearth Fire", which aired on August 4, 1955. It is a telling of the advent of TVA's building lakes written by John Ehle and directed by John Clayton.

After graduating from UNC, Kuralt worked as a reporter for the Charlotte News in his home state, where he wrote "Charles Kuralt's People," a column that won him an Ernie Pyle Award. He moved to CBS in 1957 as a writer, where he became well known as the host of the Eyewitness to History series.  He traveled around the world as a journalist for the network, including stints as CBS's Chief Latin American Correspondent and then as Chief West Coast Correspondent.

In 1967, Kuralt and a CBS camera crew accompanied Ralph Plaisted in his first attempt to reach the North Pole by snowmobile, which resulted in the documentary To the Top of the World and his book of the same name.

"On the Road"
Kuralt was said to have tired of what he considered the excessive rivalry between reporters on the hard news beats:

"I didn't like the competitiveness or the deadline pressure," he told the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, upon his induction into their Hall of Fame. "I was sure that Dick Valeriani of NBC was sneaking around behind my back — and of course, he was! — getting stories that would make me look bad the next day. Even though I covered news for a long time, I was always hoping I could get back to something like my little column on the Charlotte News."

When he finally persuaded CBS to let him try out just such an idea for three months, it turned into a quarter-century project. "On the Road" became a regular feature on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite in 1967. Kuralt hit the road in a motor home (he wore out six before he was through) with a small crew and avoided the interstates in favor of the nation's back roads in search of America's people and their doings. He said, "Interstate highways allow you to drive coast to coast, without seeing anything".

According to Thomas Steinbeck, the older son of John Steinbeck, the inspiration for "On the Road" was Steinbeck's Travels with Charley (whose title was initially considered as the name of Kuralt's feature). During his career, he won three Peabody Awards and ten Emmy Awards for journalism. He also won a George Polk Awards in 1980 for National Television Reporting.

Since 2011, Kuralt's format was revived by CBS News, with Steve Hartman taking Kuralt's space.

CBS Sunday Morning anchor
On January 28, 1979, CBS launched CBS News Sunday Morning with Kuralt as host.  On October 27, 1980, he was added as host of the weekday broadcasts of CBS' Morning show as well, joined with Diane Sawyer as weekday co-host on September 28, 1981.  Kuralt left the weekday broadcasts in March 1982, but continued to anchor the Sunday morning program until April 3, 1994, when he retired after 15 years as host and was succeeded by Charles Osgood.

Retirement and death

At age 60, Kuralt surprised many by retiring from CBS News. At the time, he was the longest tenured on-air personality in the News Division. However, he hinted that his retirement might not be complete. In 1995, he narrated the TLC documentary The Revolutionary War, and in early 1997, he signed on to host a syndicated, thrice-weekly, ninety-second broadcast, "An American Moment", presenting what CNN called "slices of Americana". Then, Kuralt also agreed to host a CBS cable broadcast show, I Remember, designed as a weekly, hour-long review of significant news from the three previous decades.

He was hospitalized and died of complications from systemic lupus erythematosus at the age of 62 at New York–Presbyterian Hospital.

One of Kuralt's books was titled North Carolina Is My Home. Kuralt's younger brother Wallace, who died in December 2003, was also well-known in his home state, having been the owner of The Intimate Bookshop on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill for many years. In addition, a portion of land along the Roanoke, Tar, Neuse, Cape Fear Ecosystem, so named for the rivers that flow into the Albemarle, Currituck, and Pamlico Sounds, has been named for Kuralt, honoring his having given as much time to nature and wildlife as to people in his "On the Road" and Sunday Morning stories.

By request in his will, Kuralt was buried on the UNC grounds in Old Chapel Hill Cemetery. The university uses a Kuralt speech in its television commercials, and it displays many of his awards and a re-creation of his office in its Journalism School. Petie Baird Kuralt, who died in 1999, was buried right next to him.

Accolades
 1993: Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement
 1994: Paul White Award, Radio Television Digital News Association
 1996: Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism

Posthumous controversy
Two years after his death, Kuralt's decades-long companionship with a Montana woman named Patricia Shannon was made public. Kuralt apparently had a second, "shadow" family with Shannon while his wife lived in Manhattan and his daughters from a previous marriage lived on the eastern seaboard. Shannon asserted that the house in Montana had been willed to her, a position upheld by the Montana Supreme Court.  According to court testimony, Kuralt had met Shannon while doing a story on Pat Baker Park in Reno, Nevada, which Shannon had promoted and volunteered to build in 1968. The park was in a low-income area of Reno that had no parks until Shannon promoted her plan. Kuralt mentions Pat Shannon and the building of the park—but not the nature of their relationship together—in his autobiography.

References

External links
 
 Charles Kuralt Collection, 1935–1997 in the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
 Ralph Grizzle, Remembering Charles Kuralt. Asheville, North Carolina: Kenilworth Media, 2000. ()
 Charles Kuralt's People. Asheville, North Carolina: Kenilworth Media, 2005. A collection of his award-winning Charlotte News columns.
 
 , a CNN obituary
 In re Estate of Kuralt, 15 P.3d 931 (2000)

1934 births
1997 deaths
20th-century American journalists
American male journalists
21st-century American journalists
60 Minutes correspondents
American television news anchors
American television reporters and correspondents
American war correspondents of the Vietnam War
American war correspondents
Burials at Old Chapel Hill Cemetery
CBS News people
Deaths from lupus
Grammy Award winners
Journalists from North Carolina
National Humanities Medal recipients
Peabody Award winners
People with lupus
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni
Writers from New York City
Writers from Wilmington, North Carolina
Joseph Start (October 14, 1842 – March 27, 1927), nicknamed "Old Reliable" or "Rocks", was one of the most durable regulars of baseball's earliest era, and one of the top first basemen of his time. He began his playing career in 1859, before the formation of organized leagues and before ballplayers received payment for their services. He continued to play regularly until 1886, when he was 43. Start's career spanned countless innovations that transformed the game in fundamental ways, but he adjusted and continued to play at a high level for almost three decades. Baseball historian Bill Ryczek said that Start "was the last of the pre–Civil War players to hang up his cleats."

Amateur era

The New York City-born Start played first base for the amateur Enterprise Club of Brooklyn in 1859, before the advent of salaried ballplaying. The following year he joined the powerful Atlantic Club of Brooklyn, with whom he would remain through the 1870 season. The Atlantics were undefeated in 1864 and 1865. During this decade, unofficial payment for exceptional players became common and the practice was eventually legitimized.

Start made a pivotal contribution to one of the most celebrated games of the late Amateur Era. The all-salaried Cincinnati Red Stockings had 81 consecutive wins across two seasons when they faced off against the Atlantics on June 14, 1870, at Brooklyn's Capitoline Grounds. After nine innings, the game was tied 5-5. The umpire ordered the teams to continue playing until the game was decided. In the top of the 11th, Cincinnati scored twice to take the lead, 7-5. In the bottom of the 11th, Atlantics third baseman Charlie Smith singled. Start then hit a booming triple, driving in Smith. Catcher Bob Ferguson drove in Start with a single to tie the game 7-7. Ferguson scored the winning run on a throwing error by Cincinnati shortstop George Wright on a hard-hit grounder by George Hall, ending the Red Stockings' legendary winning streak.

In an 1895 post-retirement interview with sportswriter Tim Murnane, Start revealed a little-known secret: “We wanted to stop playing when the score was five each, but [Cincinnati team leader] Harry Wright wouldn’t have it. You see, the Atlantics were playing on the co-operative plan, and another game meant $300 or $400 for each man.” Murnane confessed: “This was the first time I ever knew why the Brooklyn men left the field after the ninth inning, and I was present at the game.”

Professional era

In 1871, Start joined the new—and fully professional—National Association (NA), playing for the New York Mutuals and, at age 28, hitting a career-high .360, second highest on the team. He also hit the team's only home run that season. In 1873 he served as the Mutuals' field leader (a pre-managerial position) for 25 games.

The NA failed after five years. When the National League (NL) was formed in 1876, the Mutuals joined, and Start remained with the team. However, the Mutuals were a poor team in 1876, and after refusing to finish their season schedule because of a financial shortfall, they were expelled from the NL. The following year Start joined the Hartford Dark Blues, and in 1878 moved over to the Chicago White Stockings. 1878 was possibly Start's best season with the bat.  He led the league with 100 hits and 125 total bases. He came close to the league lead with 12 doubles, 5 triples, and one home run.  His 58 runs that year were second in the league. These statistics came in only 285 at bats, and at the age of 35, long after most players have begun to decline. 

From 1879 until 1885, when he was 42, Start held down first base for the Providence Grays and continued to hit well; he also served as team captain, a role that provided field leadership before the establishment of team managers. Start's 1879 Providence team won the NL flag, and in 1884 they won what is considered the first inter-league championship, beating the New York Metropolitans of the American Association.

After Providence left the NL following the 1885 season, in 1886 Start signed with the Washington Nationals for what proved to be his final season.  He only played 31 games for the Nationals, did not hit well, and retired from professional play. After this final sub-par season, his lifetime Major League batting average dipped below .300, to .299. For the final nine seasons of Start's career, he was the oldest player on any major league roster. Start played the final game of his professional career on July 9, 1886.

Over his full major league career Start amassed 1,418 hits, 854 runs, and 544 RBI in NL and NA play.  He logged a .299 batting average, a .322 on-base percentage, and a .367 slugging percentage.  These totals do not include his first twelve pre-league years, during which cumulative player statistics were not recorded. In addition, since Start's lifetime totals were achieved in much shorter seasons than today's professionals play, they tend to under-represent his sustained quality as a ballplayer.

Legacy

Bill Ryczek wrote: "There have been a number of 20th-century players who had long careers, but the game that Tommy John played during his [1963] rookie year was very much like the game he played during his final season in 1989. When 16-year-old Joe Start began playing in 1859, pitchers threw underhand with a stiff wrist from behind a line 45 feet from home plate, a fly ball caught on one bounce was an out, and gloves were unheard of, as were professional ballplayers. During his final season, pitchers threw over-hand or sidearm with velocity that was unimaginable in 1859. The one-bounce out was 20 years in the grave, and most players wore fielding gloves. All of the top players were professionals, and baseball had become big business, far removed from the amateur affair of 1859. Despite the dramatic changes in the game of baseball, Joe Start remained a steady, productive player, adapting to the changes as quickly as they appeared. He was a regular until his final year."

Writing at 19cBaseball.com, early game historian Eric Miklich asserted that "Start was reported to be an excellent fielder and may have been the first first baseman to play off of the bag when not receiving a throw, enabling him to increase the area of the infield that he covered. At that time first basemen played close to or on top of the base, waiting to take throws from the infielders."

Although born in an era when baseball was an amateur leisure pursuit, had no press coverage, and was little-known outside of New York City, Start lived long enough to see the worldwide popularity of slugger Babe Ruth's exploits during the 1920s.

Post-baseball life

After his retirement from the game, Start returned to Rhode Island and operated the Hillside Hotel, near Pawtuxet, and later the Lakewood Inn, in Warwick. His wife, Angeline, died in February, 1927, and Start died one month later, in Providence, Rhode Island, at age 84.

External links

References

Major League Baseball first basemen
Brooklyn Enterprise players
Brooklyn Atlantics (NABBP) players
Hartford Dark Blues players
New York Mutuals players
Chicago White Stockings players
Providence Grays players
New York Mutuals managers
Baseball players from New York (state)
Baseball player-managers
19th-century baseball players
1842 births
1927 deaths Roy C. Start (November 3, 1877 – December 15, 1956), born in Holmes Township, Ohio, was the Republican mayor of Toledo from 1936–40. He is the namesake for Roy C. Start High School in Toledo, Ohio. Start also founded the West Toledo YMCA.

Early career
Start (1877–1956) graduated from Ohio Northern University in 1899. After college he moved to Toledo where he served as a clerk in a drug store owned by Paul Loesser. A year later, in 1902, he opened his own drug store on the corner of Franklin Avenue and Cherry Street in Toledo. Later he opened two more drug stores in the city, along Sylvania Avenue under the name of the Start Drug Company.

City Council and Mayor
In 1935 he was elected to city council and was also elected mayor by the newly rechartered city council. He served as the first mayor under a new City Manager style government. He was re-elected in 1937 by one vote over Ollie Czelusta to both city council. He was then elected to the role of mayor. In 1939 he announced that he would not seek re-election to a third term on council, thus ending his run as mayor.

Notably, in 1938 the "All Negro" fire company was formed by Mayor Start. The company operated the former No. 8 station at Indiana Avenue and Division Street, in Toledo, Ohio. It was disbanded 11 months later due to court battles by disgruntled whites.

Later Public Service
In May 1942 Start was elected to serve as President of the Toledo Council of Churches.  He was chairman of the board of trustees of Plymouth Congregational Church and the superintendent of its Sunday School. He was a member of several civic and masonic organizations, including the Barton Smith Lodge F&AM, Collingwood Chapel, Scottish Rite, Zenobia Shrine, West Toledo Exchange Club, West Toledo Commerce Club, Municipal League, Ohio Congregational Church Union, Lucas County Pharmaceutical Association. He was also a member of the Lafayette Lyttle Commandery Knights Templar. Shortly before his death he was honored by the West Toledo branch of the YMCA which he founded.

Lasting Influence
Start's role as a businessman and public servant would inspire other businessmen in Toledo to take up public service. Gilbert Siegel a Republican running for Mayor of Toledo and also a drug store owner like Start, was quoted as saying, "Yes Sir... I do expect to win. The Republican party has been successful in running druggists for mayor. Mayors Fred Mery and Roy Start were both druggists. Drugstores can be potent political factors.  They are strategically located. Many people frequent drugstores, to buy, to ask advice."  This was more than 12 years after Start had died, proof that his legacy was lasting in the Toledo and Northwest Ohio area.

After his death, the Toledo school district named a new high school (Roy C. Start High School) after him, which opened in 1962. It is adjacent to the West Toledo YMCA that Start founded.

Interment
Roy C. Start died in 1956, and is buried at the Toledo Memorial Park and Mausoleum.

References

External links
 Website of the City of Toledo

Mayors of Toledo, Ohio
Ohio Republicans
1877 births
Ohio Northern University alumni
Ohio city council members
1956 deaths