Joan Richman, 64; Emmy Winner Was a CBS News Producer

Joan Richman, 64, a CBS News producer who won two Emmy awards for her coverage of the space program in the early 1970s, died Friday of cancer at her home in Lumberville, Pa., near Philadelphia.

Born in St. Louis and educated at Wellesley College, Richman began her career clipping newspapers in the CBS News research library and spent the next 28 years in television news, rising to full producer in 1968. She won her Emmys in 1971 and 1972 as a producer for Walter Cronkite’s coverage of manned space launches and trips to the moon.

Richman worked for ABC News from 1973 to 1975 as senior producer of a weekly news magazine, “The Reasoner Report,” hosted by Harry Reasoner. She returned to CBS afterward as executive producer of “CBS Sports Spectacular.” In 1976, she was named executive producer of the weekend editions of “CBS Evening News,” the first woman to hold that position.

The producer also handled election night coverage in 1976, 1978 and 1980, and in 1981 was chosen to head the special events unit, which put her in charge of the network’s coverage of all major breaking news events. Richman left CBS in 1989 to teach media and politics at Harvard University.