Robert Schakne, who covered stories for CBS News from Vietnam to Watergate and Three Mile Island to the Iran-Contra affair, died Thursday in Washington, D.C. He was 63.
Schakne, who retired in July 1988, was a 33-year veteran of CBS. He had been an investigative correspondent in the CBS News Washington bureau since 1976 and worked on such other major news stories as the investigation of the Challenger space shuttle disaster. He also covered the nuclear power industry on a regular basis.David Burke, president of CBS News, said of him:
"For decades, Bob Schakne set the highest standards in our profession. He was a sensitive man with great class and intelligence, and the people of CBS News are indebted to him for his enormous contribution and achievements."
Howard Stringer, president of the CBS/Broadcast Group and a former president of CBS News, said:
"Bob Schakne was a reporter's reporter, dogged in pursuit of the truth and committed to the craft of careful reporting."
Schakne was based in New York City prior to his Washington assignment and from 1966 to 1976 covered stories including the city's financial crisis and the trial of Watergate defendants John Mitchell and Maurice Stans.
He won a Sigma Delta Chi Distinguished Service Award for his coverage of the Attica State Prison uprising in 1971.
He also reported on the grand jury investigation of Vice President Spiro Agnew and Agnew's resignation, for which he received a national Emmy Award.
Schakne served as CBS News Latin American corrspondent from 1964 through mid-1966. Later, in 1972-74, he covered the Argentinian political situation and the return of Juan Peron. He reported on Salvador Allende's election in Chile, the Bahamas' independence, fugitive Robert Vesco and the assassination of the governor of Bermuda in 1973.
Schakne, who was born in New York City, joined CBS News after working for International News Service where he covered the Korean war, then became chief of the INS Tokyo bureau.