Each Sunday morning, Dwight watched the “talking heads,” in his office while eating a toasted bagel, drinking a Coke, and paying bills. That was his routine.
From Meet the Press to Face the Nation to Sunday Morning, Dwight watched and listened. He explained, “I need to be able to make important decisions.” I believed that our national security hinged on Dwight’s attentiveness to the programs.
When Charles Kuralt left Sunday Morning, Dwight cried.
He often repeated Kuralt’s last words on the program:
“There is a rhyme by Clarence Day which says what I want to say:
‘Farewell, my friends, farewell and hail;
I’m off to see the holy grail;
I cannot tell you why;
remember, please, when I am gone,
’twas aspiration led me on;
tiddly-widdly-toodle-oo,
all I want is to stay with you,
but here I go,
goodbye.'”
‘Twas always aspiration that drove Dwight. Starting on the bus in Oklahoma when he sat next to the Naval Officer, over and over he remade himself. He became a photographer, a Chief-of-Staff, a contractor, an architect, a father, grandfather, a great-grandfather, a friend, and, a husband.
