In Chester, CBS' Morley Safer died at age 84

In Chester, CBS' Morley Safer Found A Refuge Among Friends, Neighbors.

In this Oct. 21, 2008 file photo, Morley Safer poses for a picture during the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame Awards in New York. 

 (Seth Wenig / Associated Press)

The veteran reporter died May 19, 2016, at 84.

CHESTER — During a career that took Morley Safer all over the world reporting on war, art, culture, crime and every topic imaginable, Chester was an escape.
While earning far-reaching respect for his reporting that aired Sunday nights on CBS' "60 Minutes," Safer — who died Thursday at age 84 — came to appreciate the charms of Chester's restaurants and art galleries and its setting along the Connecticut River.

He'd take his old pickup truck to the dump with his dog, Dora, on the passenger seat and attended services at Congregation Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek.

"When you'd go out to dinner with him you'd never know there was a celebrity there," said Peter Good, an artist who owns the North Main Street graphic design firm Cummings & Good with his wife, Jan Cummings Good. "He loved the simple life in the country."

Safer and his wife, Jane Fearer, hosted friends often at their house in Chester, inviting them over for wine and the French lawn game petanque. He did a significant amount of his writing and drawing at his home in town, Good said.

"He traveled all over the world but when he was in Chester he was a homebody, and such a good cook," Jan Good said.

Safer, who died at his home in New York City, recently retired after 46 years on "60 Minutes," which ran a special report Sunday night on his career. CBS reported that he was declining in health when he announced his retirement last week.

"This is a very sad day for all of us at '60 Minutes' and CBS News," said Jeff Fager, executive producer for "60 Minutes" and Safer's close friend. "Morley was a fixture, one of our pillars, and an inspiration in many ways. He was a master storyteller, a gentleman and a wonderful friend. We will miss him very much."

Safer did 919 stories in his 46 years on "60 Minutes," from his first in 1970 about U.S. sky marshals to his last in March, a profile of Danish architect Bjarke Ingels.

He won a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for his 2001 story on a school in Arizona geared to serve children who are homeless. Other honors include three George Foster Peabody awards, 12 Emmys and two George Polk Awards.

Perhaps his most controversial story was his report showing American soldiers burning the homes of villagers at Cam Ne during the Vietnam War.

Safer and Fearer, who grew up in West Hartford, split time between Chester and New York City since the 1980s. Safer had a talent for blending into the community, but on occasion would lend his notoriety to a good cause or a friend's event.

Rabbi Rachel Goldenberg said she first met Safer on the eve of Yom Kippur, the holiest Jewish day, during her first year at Congregation Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek.
"I knew he was going to be there and it was a little intimidating," Goldenberg said. "I preached against the death penalty, this was just a few months after the Cheshire home invasion, and afterward he introduced himself to me and he congratulated me and he was so supportive and appreciative that I would go out on a limb and speak that way."

She said Safer's celebrity increased the profile of the synagogue, and that he had a talent for avoiding the spectacle his attendance at an event might bring.

"He was someone who was humble and generous and funny," Goldenberg said. "Folks knowing he was a member here made it a draw, but this was the place he could just be a regular person. One of the last times I saw him was at a birthday party for a member of the congregation, and we were just celebrating at a birthday party. He was so approachable."

In 1970, Safer joined "60 Minutes," then just two years old and not yet the national institution it would become. He took the co-host chair alongside Mike Wallace.

"Morley was one of the most important journalists in any medium, ever," CBS Chairman and CEO Leslie Moonves said. "He broke ground in war reporting and made a name that will forever be synonymous with '60 Minutes.' He was also a gentleman, a scholar, a great raconteur — all of those things and much more to generations of colleagues, his legion of friends, and his family, to whom all of us at CBS offer our sincerest condolences over the loss of one of CBS' and journalism's greatest treasures."

Peter Good said Safer often shared stories about his work as a journalist, but when the Goods and the Safers had dinner at one of their homes or out in Chester, the conversation was typically about their shared love of art. The four of them had dinner together before Thanksgiving last year, and he last talked to Safer about two weeks ago.

"Our conversations just wandered all over the place, from books to politics to art," Good said. "We'll miss that. We'll miss his humor. We just had so many laughs together."
Safer was born in Toronto in 1931, yet insisted he was "stateless" and, as a reporter chasing stories around the globe, claimed, "I have no vested interests." He became an American citizen, holding dual citizenship.

He began his career at news organizations in Canada and England. In 1955, he was offered a correspondent's job in the Canadian Broadcasting Company's London bureau, where he worked nine years before CBS News hired him for its London bureau.

In 1965 he opened CBS' Saigon bureau.

In 1970, he was brought to New York to succeed original co-host Harry Reasoner on an innovative newsmagazine that, in its third season, was still struggling in the ratings, and would rely on Safer and Wallace as its only co-anchors for the next five years.

In 1971, Safer won an Emmy for his "60 Minutes" investigation of the Gulf of Tonkin incident that began America's war in Vietnam.

He became a fixture at "60 Minutes" — and part of that show's rough-and-tumble behind-the-scenes culture. (A former producer for Safer kept on display a framed remnant of the curtain that was the landing place for a cup of coffee Safer once threw at him.)

By 2006 Safer had reduced his output. But he remained with the show after the departures of Wallace — who retired in 2006 at age 88, and died in 2012 — as well as "60 Minutes" creator-producer Don Hewitt — who stepped down in 2004 at 81, and died in 2009.

And as late as 2012, he still held forth daily in his office on West 57th Street, where he banged out "60 Minutes" stories as he had done for more than 40 years.


Source: www.courant.com