The life and times of foreign correspondent Bob Simon

60 Minutes celebrates the great Bob Simon this week. He died on Wednesday, February 11th, 2015 in a car accident at the age of 73.

"Bob Simon had an inimitable style and voice that made him the perfect 60 Minutes correspondent. No one ever covered the world with more curiosity or gusto," said 60 Minutes Executive Producer Bill Owens.

In 2013, 60 Minutes Overtime interviewed Bob about the 40 years he spent covering the Middle East, first as a foreign correspondent for CBS News and later as a correspondent for 60 Minutes. That interview can be watched in the video player above.

A short history of the "stand-up"

Simon was a master of the "correspondent stand-up" in his news reports and 60 Minutes stories. Here's a compilation, dating back to the 1970s.

Thank you, Bob 

Bob Simon never said no to an interview with 60 Minutes Overtime. Some of it made air. A lot didn't. Most of the time, it was just Bob being Bob.

Whisky Island

When our late colleague Bob Simon heard about a magical place in the Hebrides islands off the coast of Scotland, known for making some of the great whiskies in the world… well, the story spoke to him. Watch Steve Kroft and Bob Simon's report on the Scottish Island of Islay, home to some of the world's premium single-malt scotch whiskies