10. Charles Kuralt, 1934-1997

Photograph of Kuralt and his gravestone

Charles Kuralt is one of the newest members of the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery. He was born in Wilmington, NC, in 1934, and attended UNC, where he spent the majority of his time at The Daily Tar Heel, serving as Editor his senior year. Indeed, he spent so much time at the Tar Heel that he ended up failing his classes. (He was awarded a degree later in life, after distinguishing himself as a journalist.)

Straight out of college without a degree, Kuralt interned at The Charlotte News, where, after only one year, he was awarded CBS’s Ernie Pyle award. Instead of accepting the award, he asked, “if you like my work, why don’t you just hire me?” They did, and he became the youngest CBS correspondent at age 25. He went on to cover the Vietnam War and other stories all over the world. However, he soon grew tired of hard news reporting and decided instead to travel the country finding positive and representative American stories for his own show, entitled On the Road with Charles Kuralt.

Over the course of his career, Kuralt won 13 Emmys, many other broadcasting awards, and was on the New York Times Best Seller List several times. He helped the whole country recognize that good news is news. Despite all the places he had traveled, he chose to return to Chapel Hill to be buried. Before he passed away from heart failure and lupus in 1997, he was able to secure a plot in the cemetery on the campus he loved.