Bob Schieffer

Bob Schieffer, 79, has been a reporter for more than half a century and his retirement in 2015 marked his 46th year at CBS News and his 24th anchoring "Face the Nation." In 2016, it was announced that Schieffer will serve as a political contributor through the 2017 Inauguration. Prior to joining CBS in 1969 he was a reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram where he was the first reporter from a Texas newspaper to report from Vietnam.

Schieffer has won virtually every award in broadcast journalism including eight Emmys, the overseas Press Club Award, the Paul White Award presented by the TV News Directors Association, the Edward R. Murrow Award given by Murrow's alma mater Washington State University and in 2008 he was named a living legend by the Library of Congress. In 2013, Schieffer was inducted into the National Academy of Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame along with CBS Chairman and CEO Leslie Moonves, actor Ron Howard, sportscaster Al Michaels and writer/producer Dick Wolf.

In 2015, "Face the Nation" was the highest rated Sunday talk show for the fourth consecutive year and in 2014 the broadcast won an Emmy for its show covering the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination in 2013. Schieffer also received the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence from the Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University and the Edward R. Murrow Award for Writing from the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) in the Network Radio and Television category for a CBS Radio News commentary about "the ghost of Congress future."

In 2005, his alma mater Texas Christian University named its journalism school in his honor and in 2013 named the College, in which the journalism school is located, the Bob Schieffer College of Communication. Schieffer is one of the few reporters in Washington to have covered all four of the major beats: the Pentagon, the White House, Congress and the State Department. He became the network's chief Washington correspondent in 1982 and was named the anchor and moderator of "Face the Nation", CBS News' Sunday public affairs broadcast, in 1991.

Schieffer anchored the Saturday edition of the "CBS Evening News" for 23 years. In March 2005, with the departure of Dan Rather, Schieffer served as interim anchor of "The CBS Evening News," until August 2006 - a period that saw a substantial increase in ratings.

He has interviewed every president since Richard Nixon as well as most of those who sought the office. Schieffer also moderated three debates for the Presidential Commission on Debates in 2004, 2008 and 2012.

He is the author of four books: The New York Times bestsellers "This Just in" and "Bob Schieffer's America" as well as "Face the Nation: My Favorite Stories from the First 50 Years of the Award-winning News Broadcast" and "The Acting President."

Additionally, he is currently serving as the Walter Shorenstein Media and Democracy Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center.

Schieffer was born in Austin, Texas and grew up in Fort Worth where he graduated from North Side High School and Texas Christian University. He served three years in the U.S. Air Force. He and his wife, the former Patricia Penrose, reside in Washington, D.C. They have two daughters and three granddaughters.