Tim Russert

I spent the evening crying over Tim Russert’s passing. What a great man.

Washington Post

After he left Cuomo and went to work for NBC, one of his dreams was to take the “Today Show” to Rome and the Vatican, and to see the Pope. He was typically diligent as he got ready to fly over to make his presentation and realize that dream, carefully researching everything he could think of to make the best impression possible for his network.

He laughed, shortly after returning, when he recounted what had happened. Though the details of our conversation more than 20 years ago are slightly murky, I recall him describing how, in Rome, he had met his match in the form of a smooth American priest who, it turned out, had done his own research on the Irish-Catholic Russert and his Jesuit education.

“So, Tim,” the priest said before Russert could begin his pitch for taking the show to the Vatican and an NBC an interview with the Pope, “I see you graduated from Canisius High School in Buffalo.” His interlocutor knew it all — where Tim had come from, where he had gone to school, how he had made his way to the network. Russert realized he had met his match — and reveled in telling the story.

Let the record show, however, that the “Today Show” went to Rome and that, when Russert met Pope John Paul II, he gave the Holy Father an NBC cap. He told that story with an even bigger smile.

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