Robert Edward Clark

Bob Clark spent most of his 51-year career as a newsman reporting on Congress, the White House and national politics. A former chairman of the Radio-Television Correspondents Association, he has also traveled widely overseas, interviewed many foreign leaders and lectured on a number of cruise ships.

Mr. Clark has personally known or covered every American president since Dwight Eisenhower. His interviews with heads of state include seven U.S. presidents and the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Israel, Egypt, Libya, Iran, Jordan, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, South Africa and Japan. He was host of the ABC News program "Issues and Answers" from 1975-1980.

Mr. Clark's special interest in presidential politics resulted in some notable exclusives. He was the first to report that then President Richard Nixon had chosen Gerald Ford to be his vice president. He was also the first to report, at the 1976 Republican convention, that President Ford had picked Senator Robert Dole to be his running mate. Mr. Clark covered all three Kennedy brothers as a reporter and was with both John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy when they were assassinated.

Mr. Clark joined ABC News in 1961 after five years as White House correspondent for International News Service and three years with the Washington Star. He began his news career in the Detroit bureau of INS in 1948 and has reported from the nation's capital since 1950.

Born in Omaha, Nebraska, May 14, 1922, Mr. Clark attended high school in Wichita, Kansas, and has B.S. and M.A. degrees from the University of Minnesota. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II from radio operator to Ensign, USNR. His wife of 70 years is the former Ruth Kanianen of Virginia, Minnesota.