Peter Landis Kendall

PETER LANDIS KENDALL passed away peacefully at the age of 85 on December 20, 2021 in Washington DC in the loving care of his wife Beate and daughter, Stefanie. He was born on October 8, 1936 to Roy C. Kendall and Edythe Mae Kendall (née Kindy) in Toledo, Ohio.

Peter graduated from the University of Cincinnati with degrees in English and History and earned his bachelors of science degree in cinematography from the University of Illinois, before launching a long and distinguished career in broadcast journalism. After baptism as a cub television news reporter in Indianapolis, Indiana, Peter accepted a position as a news producer and writer with the Voice of America in 1961 and moved to Washington, D.C. Washington would forever be his adopted U.S. home.

In 1964, Peter jumped at the chance to take an assignment as a correspondent with the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle in Bonn, then the capital of West Germany. His fluency in German served him well: not only did it kindle a lifelong fondness for Germany, he also met his German wife-to-be, Beate. After their wedding at Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, in 1966, Peter and Beate returned to Washington where Peter continued his career with the Voice of America, followed by twenty-one years with CBS News, and more than ten years with CNN prior to his retirement. He rose to hold senior executive producer positions in Washington, DC and in Europe, bureau chief positions in London, England, and Bonn, West Germany, and deputy bureau chief positions in Washington.

Peter's accomplishments and successes were many. He received an Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his production of the United States Senate Watergate hearings coverage. On being transferred to London in 1974, he was the only CBS producer responsible for all of Europe before being promoted to bureau chief. The '70's and '80's were tumultuous times and Peter's coverage, at times at a gruelling, unforgiving pace, included the Iran Hostage Crisis and the ultimate return of the hostages, presidential trips of Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan to Europe and Middle East, NATO and world economc summits, the Sadat-Carter peace talks in Cairo, Lech Walesa and the Solidarnosc protests in Gdansk, the Moscow Olympics (including attempted defections to him by an Afghan team), the Royal Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, and terrorist attacks by Carlos "The Jackal", the Red Army Faction, Bader-Meinhoff gang, and the IRA (the latter including a blast that shattered his CBS bureau's windows).

His eight year assignment to Britain made an indelible impression on Peter, and while there he spent the free hours that he did have in his cherished home in Surrey, driving the winding ways of the English countryside, visiting churches, manor houses and antiques markets, and sailing. His love of Britain (the Cotswold region in particular) and the British people, their history, and culture continued as a strong theme for the rest of his life, and he and Beate would return frequently.

Above all, Peter was a proud newsman in the old school tradition of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, passionate about his craft, and dedicated to covering hard news and matters of genuine public interest. He took the importance of a free press seriously and helped secure the release of a fellow journalist with another news organization from Ugandan authorities. Later in his career, Peter would actively and vocally resist the blurring of the line between journalism and entertainment, and fight industry pressures to consider ratings and advertising revenue the barometers of newsworthiness.

Peter served as a member of the Board of Directors of Health Volunteers Overseas, an organization dedicated to improving global health through education, and was an active member of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Bethesda, Maryland.

Peter is survived by his wife of fifty-five years, Beate Kendall, of Washington, D.C., his daughter Stefanie Kendall, also of Washington, D.C., his son Adrian Kendall, of Cumberland, Maine, and his grandsons, George and Kurt, also of Cumberland, Maine. The family will hold a service in celebration of his life at a time to be determined in the new year. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made in Peter's memory to Reporters Without Borders or a charitable cause of importance to the reader.