Paul Harvey*

Paul Harvey was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1918. His father, a policeman, was killed during a shootout when Harvey was three. His mother used the insurance money she received to expand and subdivide their modest home, renting the resulting two apartments and a spare room to support herself and her two children.

As a young boy, Harvey made radio sets, never imagining the eventual career he would have on nationwide radio. He also mowed lawns and shoveled snow to help the family make ends meet. "We were pinched hard in the Great Depression years, but never painfully pinched," he said.

While he was still in high school, Tulsa radio station KVOO hired Harvey as an occasional announcer. He later enrolled at the University of Tulsa. He became an announcer and then program director at KVOO before being hired as station manager at KFBI in Abilene, Kansas. That position led to more radio work in Oklahoma City; next, on to St. Louis as a roving report for KXOK; and then director of news and information for WKZO in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

In 1944, Harvey went to Chicago to work for an NBC affiliate, serving as a substitute for other newscasters. Soon, he became popular enough to have his own show. He went coast-to-coast with ABC in 1951 and stayed with the network after that.

Harvey was once the most popular radio personality in America. His broadcasts reached more than 20 million loyal listeners who tuned in every week to hear his unique blend of news and views. Paul Harvey News was the world's largest communications conglomerate with 1,300 radio stations, an additional 400 stations on the American Forces Radio Network, 100 television stations, and 300 newspapers. His broadcasts and newspaper columns were reprinted in the Congressional Record more often than those of any other commentator.

He was named Commentator of the Year; Salesman of the Year; and Person, Father, and American of the Year. He was on the Gallup Poll list of America's most admired men, and was elected to the National Association of Broadcasters Radio Hall of Fame and Oklahoma Hall of Fame. He was also a five-time recipient of the Marconi Award for Network Personality of the Year.

Harvey attributed his popularity to his "identification with the conservative middle American audience." When asked about what has guided his life all those years, he remembered an elementary school teacher, Miss Harp, who told him: "Paul, never feel resentment in your heart for those who have more than you. Just do all you can as long as you live to preserve this last wonderful land in which any man willing to stay on his toes can reach for the stars."