Trivia

He served in the Marine Corps 1956-1959.

He and Bob Schieffer began their journalism career together in Texas.

Inspired by WWII correspondents, he worked on his high school newspaper and studied journalism at the University of Missouri.

He wrote more than 20 novels, including several mysteries, as well as plays and memoirs.

Moderator of choice for televised presidential debates

Son of Lois Catherine (Chapman), a bank clerk, and Harry Frederick Lehrer, a bus station manager and bus driver. His father was born in West Orange, New Jersey, to German immigrants. His mother was from Oklahoma.

His autobiography is titled, "A Bus of My Own".

Owns a bus in memory of his father.

Biography/bibliography in: "Contemporary Authors". New Revision Series, Volume 155, pages 267-273. Farmington Hills, Michigan, 2007.

Won two Emmys.

Inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1999.

Father of three daughters.

Received a "George Foster Peabody" television broadcasting award.

Awarded a National Humanities Medal in 1999.

At WETA-TV, based in Virginia, he began covering the Watergate hearings in 1973 with fellow reporter Robert MacNeil. In 1975, they teamed up for "The MacNeil/Lehrer Report," a 30-minute broadcast that was eventually expanded to an hour.

Maternal grandfather was James Blaine "J. B." Chapman, (1884-1947), a minister, president of Arkansas Holiness and Peniel Colleges, editor of the Herald of Holiness, and general superintendent in the Church of the Nazarene.