Bill Monroe, who hosted NBC’s Sunday-morning political program Meet the Press from 1975-1984, died February 17, 2011, in Potomac, Maryland. He was 90.
According to news reports, Monroe injured himself in fall in December, and he had not been well since.
Monroe, the fourth moderator of Meet the Press, interviewed such high-level political figures as President Jimmy Carter and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
After Monroe left Meet the Press, co-hosts Marvin Kalb and Roger Mudd stepped in until the position was filled by Tim Russert, who hosted until his death in 2008.
Monroe was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on July 17, 1920. After graduating from Tulane University, he served in World War II. He began his career in television journalism at the New Orleans NBC affiliate, WDSU.
In 1961 he moved to Washington, where he became NBC’s bureau chief. He worked on the Today show, and won a Peabody Award in 1972. In 1975 he took over for Lawrence Spivak as host of Meet the Press.
Monroe was known for a firm, direct interviewing style. One of his most memorable exchanges with a subject came in 1976, soon after he became the permanent moderator, when he confronted Alabama Gov. George Wallace, who had once advocated segregation and was running for president.
Monroe asked Wallace: “Have you personally changed your views about segregation?” When Wallace did not respond directly, Monroe interrupted him and repeated the question two more times. Wallace went on to say that race relations were better in the South than in other parts of the country.
After Meet the Press Monroe returned for a time to Today as host of a letters-from-the-viewers segment.
After retiring from NBC in 1986, he edited The Washington Journalism Review and worked for the Defense Department as ombudsman for the military newspaper Stars and Stripes. His last job was editing The Early Bird, a collection of newspaper stories the Pentagon sent to bases around the world.
Survivors include four daughters, five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.