Andy Rooney

Andrew Aitken Rooney was born in Albany, New York, the son of Walter Scott Rooney (1888–1959) and Ellinor (Reynolds) Rooney (1886–1980).

Andrew Aitken Rooney (January 14, 1919 – November 4, 2011) was an American radio and television writer who was best known for his weekly broadcast "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney", a part of the CBS News program 60 Minutes from 1978 to 2011.

He attended The Albany Academy, and later attended Colgate University in Hamilton in central New York, where he was initiated into the Sigma Chi fraternity, before he was drafted into the United States Army in August 1941.

Rooney began his career in newspapers in 1942 while in the Army where he began writing for Stars and Stripes in London.

He was one of six correspondents who flew on the second American bombing raid over Germany in February 1943, flying with the Eighth Air Force.

He was the first journalist to reach the Ludendorff Bridge after the 9th Armored Division captured it on March 7, 1945.

He was 32 km to the west when he heard that the bridge had been captured.

"It was a reporter's dream," he wrote.

"One of the great stories of the war had fallen into my lap."

The bridge capture was front-page news in America.

Rooney rated the capture of the bridge as one of the top five events of the entire European war, alongside D-Day.

He was one of the first American journalists to visit the Nazi concentration camps near the end of World War II, and one of the first to write about them.

During a segment on Tom Brokaw's The Greatest Generation, Rooney stated that he had been opposed to World War II because he was a pacifist.

He recounted that what he saw in those concentration camps made him ashamed that he had opposed the war and permanently changed his opinions about whether "just wars" exist.

Rooney was decorated with the Bronze Star Medal and Air Medal for his service as a war correspondent in combat zones during the war.

Rooney joined CBS in 1949 as a writer for Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, when Godfrey was at his peak on CBS radio and TV.

It opened the show up to a variety of viewers.

The program was a hit, reaching number one in 1952 during Rooney's tenure.

It was the beginning of a close lifelong friendship between Rooney and Godfrey.

He wrote for Godfrey's daytime radio and TV show Arthur Godfrey Time.

He later moved on to The Garry Moore Show which became a hit program.

During the same period, he wrote public affairs programs for CBS News, such as The Twentieth Century.

From 1962 to 1968, he collaborated with CBS News correspondent Harry Reasoner, Rooney writing and producing and Reasoner narrating.

Rooney wrote his first television essay in 1964 called "An Essay on Doors", "a longer-length precursor of the type" that he did on 60 Minutes, according to CBS News's biography of him.

They wrote on CBS News specials such as "An Essay on Bridges" (1965), "An Essay on Hotels" (1966), "An Essay on Women" (1967), and "The Strange Case of the English Language" (1968).

In 1968, he wrote two episodes of the CBS News documentary series Of Black America, and his script for "Black History: Lost, Stolen, or Strayed" won him his first Emmy.

CBS refused to broadcast his World War II memoir titled "An Essay on War" in 1970, so Rooney quit CBS and read the opinion himself on PBS, which was his first appearance on television.

That show in 1971 won him his third Writers Guild Award.

He rejoined CBS in 1973 to write and produce special programs.

After his return to the network, Rooney wrote and appeared in several primetime specials for CBS, including In Praise of New York City (1974), the Peabody Award-winning Mr. Rooney Goes to Washington (1975), Mr. Rooney Goes to Dinner (1978), and Mr. Rooney Goes to Work (1977).

Transcripts of these specials are contained in the book A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney, as well as of some of the earlier collaborations with Reasoner.

He also wrote the script for the 1975 documentary FDR: The Man Who Changed America.

Rooney's "end-of-show" segment on 60 Minutes, "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney" (originally "Three Minutes or So With Andy Rooney" ), began in 1978, as a summer replacement for the debate segment "Point/Counterpoint" featuring Shana Alexander and James Kilpatrick.

The segment proved popular enough with viewers that beginning in the fall of 1978, it was seen in alternate weeks with the debate segment.

At the end of the 1978–1979 season, "Point/Counterpoint" was dropped altogether.

In the segment, Rooney typically offered satire on a trivial everyday issue, such as the cost of groceries, annoying relatives, or faulty Christmas presents.

Rooney's appearances on "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney" often included whimsical lists, such as types of milk, bottled water brands, car brands, and sports mascots.

His 1995 memoir My War chronicles his war reporting and recounts several notable historical events and people from a first-hand view, including the entry into Paris and the Nazi concentration camps.

He describes how it shaped his experience both as a writer and reporter.

His final regular appearance on 60 Minutes aired on October 2, 2011; he died a month later at the age of 92.