CBS Newsman Drinkwater Dies of Cancer

Veteran CBS News correspondent Terry Drinkwater, who had battled cancer for more than six years, died of the disease Wednesday at his home in Malibu, CBS said. He was 53.

Drinkwater, whose last CBS News report was aired last August, did a series of broadcasts on cancer, including his own, in 1983. The reports earned him an Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University award.

He had been with CBS News for 25 years, and was a senior correspondent at its Los Angeles bureau.

The recipient of three Emmy awards and a Peabody award for his reporting, Drinkwater had been a CBS correspondent in Japan, Korea, Great Britain and Latin America before his Los Angeles assignment.

Born in Denver, Drinkwater graduated from Pomona College in Claremont in 1958 and earned a master of arts degree from UC Berkeley a year later.

He began his news career as an editorial assistant and messenger at what now is KCBS-TV Channel 2 in Los Angeles. Before joining CBS News, he worked as a reporter at Los Angeles station KTLA Channel 5 from 1961 to 1962.

“His death deprives CBS of one of its most valued craftsmen, a man of style and panache, who graced our television screens with a rare combination of wit and insight,” said Howard Stringer, president of the CBS Broadcast Group.

Drinkwater, who was divorced, is survived by a son, Croft, and a daughter, Angela. Funeral services are pending.