Bill Kurtis

“Before it was history, it was news,” reflects Kansas-raised journalist, network news anchor, producer, and rancher Bill Kurtis.

Join acclaimed journalist Bill Kurtis in conversation with Dole Institute Director Audrey Coleman for a lively discussion of his Kansas roots and the news that shaped the nation over the course of 7 decades in journalism.

Special thanks to the Dole Lecture media partner Kansas Public Radio.

About Bill Kurtis

Bill Kurtis began his journalism career at WIBW-TV in Topeka, Kansas. After his 24-hour coverage of a devastating tornado in 1966, Kurtis was hired by Chicago’s WBBM-TV, where he was a field reporter and later anchor of The Channel Two News.

In 1978, Kurtis’ investigative unit was one of the first to report on the dangerous effects of the Agent Orange chemical on American forces in Vietnam. While covering the story, he returned to Vietnam in 1980 to find the children of American servicemen living in the streets of Saigon with their mothers, who were unable to find work. Kurtis’ reporting became a cover story in the New York Times Magazine and resulted in legislation that allowed these children immediate access to the United States. Additionally, his reporting launched massive studies into the post-war lives of American servicemen to make exposure to Agent Orange treatable—establishing a new standard of care for veterans that continues to evolve in the modern day.

In 1982, Kurtis joined the CBS Morning News as a co-anchor alongside Diane Sawyer, later returning to WBBM-TV in 1985 as anchorman through 1996 and from 2010 to 2013 alongside Walter Jacobson.

After a 30-year run with CBS, he established Kurtis Productions, which produces non-fiction programs and documentaries. Additionally, he serves as the Official Judge and Scorekeeper on National Public Radio’s news quiz show, Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!, and has narrated multiple motion pictures, including the Anchorman films starring Will Ferrell.

Kurtis was born in Florida and raised in Independence, Kansas, after his father retired from the U.S. Marine Corps. He graduated from the University of Kansas with a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism, and from Washburn University School of Law with a Juris Doctorate. In addition to his work in journalism, Kurtis is an active conservationist in Kansas. Kurtis has placed land in the Red Buffalo Ranch, originally 8,000 acres of prairie in Chautauqua County, in conservation easements and has sold much of the land to cattlemen and the Delaware Indian Tribe. His daughter, Mary Kristin Kurtis, now owns the remainder of the ranch and the Red Buffalo Gift Shop in Sedan, Kansas.

About the Dole Lecture

Each spring, the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics commemorates the date on which Senator Bob Dole was critically wounded while serving in Italy during World War II. To honor Senator Dole’s courageous recovery and commitment to serve the nation, we welcome a guest to the Institute who embodies the commitments that Senator Dole held throughout his career in public service.