SIR CHARLES WHEELERVeteran journalist and elder statesman of foreign correspondence Charles Wheeler died at the age of 85, on 4 July, 2008.During his 60-year radio and television career he witnessed many major world events, reporting on them with authority and eloquence.He was working in Washington during Vietnam War protests, the Martin Luther King assassination and the Watergate scandal.Other assignments included covering the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956, the Dalai Lama's flight to Tibet in 1959 and three years in segregated Berlin.Selwyn Charles Cornelius Wheeler was born in Germany on 26 March, 1923. He began his career in journalism as an errand boy at the Daily Sketch newspaper in the late 1930s. He spent five years in the Marines before joining the BBC in 1947.His erudite reports from Asia and Europe during the 1950s earned him the post of Washington Correspondent, one of the most sought-after positions in journalism. Over the course of three decades of reporting and commentary he established a reputation as the preeminent analyst of American affairs, acting as primary correspondent for both Radio 4 and Newsnight.Later in his career he hosted Dateline London for BBC World News and produced numerous investigative documentaries. He was knighted for his services to broadcasting and overseas journalism in 2006.He was regarded throughout the industry as a living legend, though he had a reputation for intolerance of unprofessionalism and 'dumbing down' of news reporting and was not afraid of speaking his mind on controversial matters.His professional accolades included the Royal Television Society's 'Journalist of the Year' award in 1988 and 'Best Documentary' award in 1989, and the James Cameron Memorial Award in 1990.He also held the distinction of being the BBC's longest-serving correspondent having joined in 1947. He was born in 1923, only a year after the BBC itself was founded. At the time of his death he was working on a radio documentary about the Dalai Lama.He was married to an Indian woman, Dip Singh, with whom he had two daughters - Marina Wheeler, a barrister and wife of politician Boris Johnson, and Shirin Wheeler, who followed her father into journalism as the BBC's Brussels correspondent. He died of lung cancer.Mark Damazer, the controller of BBC Radio 4, said: "Charles Wheeler embodied all that is best in the BBC's journalism. He had a brilliant eye and an unequalled ability to convey what he saw and what he knew. Everything he did was shot through with his compassion and wisdom . He was magnificent."
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