Brokaw's retirement triggers memories
By KILEY MILLER
kmiller@thehawkeye.com
Tom Brokaw may be retiring on top, but give ol' Dan some of the credit.
No, not Dan Rather — Dan Wiedemeier. After all, it was Wiedemeier, a Burlington businessman, who hounded the NBC News anchor to study in college.
Ending 21 years at the desk of one of the nation's preeminent news networks, Brokaw officially says good–bye on tonight's broadcast. His career as a journalist spanned six administrations, the civil rights movement and Watergate, two wars in Iraq, and Sept. 11.
But before he was television's No. 1 anchor, Brokaw was a freshman at the University of Iowa in 1958 and a pledge in the Delta Upsilon fraternity. It just so happened that Wiedemeier was the fraternity's scholarship chairman that year.
"It was my job to take the freshmen down to Schaeffer Hall every night and make them study," Wiedemeier said.
It was clear Brokaw "liked people," but Wiedemeier did not see fame and fortune on the horizon for his young charge.
"Tom had a good time in school," he said.
Brokaw left Iowa City after just one year, later graduating from the University of South Dakota. But his relationship with Wiedemeier didn't end there.
Apparently, one way to stay acquainted with one of the most powerful men in the media is to have an attractive sibling.
"He actually dated my sister for a while," Wiedemeier said.
On the wall of Wiedemeier's eighth–floor office at F&M Bank hangs a framed note from Brokaw. The newsman sent it in 2003 to congratulate his old fraternity brother on winning the Emmy Award from the Burlington/West Burlington Area Chamber of Commerce for outstanding community service.
Known for his small–town sensibility, Brokaw wrote, "It must be very gratifying to be honored by the people you care about the most — your hometown neighbors."
The note then takes a funny and friendly detour: "When people ask how I came to know you, I always answer, 'He had the cutest sister in the fraternity.' "
Wiedemeier lost track of Brokaw in the mid–1960s, until one day, listening to a radio report on the Watts race riots, he heard that signature voice.
"They said it was Tom Brokaw," Wiedemeier recalled, "and I said, 'I know him.' "
The pair met again in the 1980s when Wiedemeier was a vice president for AT&T in Washington. Otherwise, their relationship has consisted of little more than a few hasty notes.
Still, Wiedemeier could always check on the famous former freshman from South Dakota by flipping on the evening news. He won't be able to do that anymore.
"I am proud of him," Wiedemeier said. "I think he's done a great job."
Linear Mode
