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ABC News correspondent, "20/20"
Bob Brown joined ABC News in 1977 and was assigned to "20/20" in August of 1980.
During the 2002-03 season, Mr. Brown reported on a wide range of topics for "20/20," including the "Seabiscuit" phenomenon, the movie based n the true story of a racehorse who defied impossible odds to become a winner. He interviewed the movie's star, Tobey Maguire, as well as the author, Laura Hillenbrand, whose own personal struggle and triumph mirror's that of Seabiscuit. He also reported on a top forensic detective's latest work: uncovering the identity of a civil war skeleton; on a teenager without arms who has achieved the improbable; and on a son from a well-to-do family who surprised family and friends by enlisting in the marines, among numerous other reports.
During the 2001-02 season, Mr. Brown's reports included the story of Mother Dolores, a cloistered nun who was once the movie star Dolores Hart. She discussed the series of choices that led her to abandon a multi-million dollar Hollywood career for the quiet and solitude of a convent. He also profiled an unusual dance company called Bandaloop, which stages elaborately choreographed ballets vertically hanging from the tops of buildings or over the sides of sheer cliffs in the wilderness.
During the 1999-00 season, Mr. Brown investigated the inadequate record-keeping that led to the government denial of benefits earned by many U.S. combat veterans. He traveled to a village on the plains of northern India to visit a girls' school that was funded with tips collected by a New York City taxi driver in memory of his mother. Mr. Brown went to Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta of Vietnam to report on an outcast, the daughter of an American serviceman and a Vietnamese mother, who rose to become one of Vietnam's most popular entertainers and discovered her father in the process. He reported the story of the Irish tenor, Dr. Ronan Tynan, who gained international fame as a singer only after a lifetime of other accomplishments, including winning gold medals in world Special Olympics competitions and earning a medical degree from Dublin's Trinity University. Mr. Brown was also part of the acclaimed, 24-hour ABC News Millennium broadcast.
In the preceding season, Mr. Brown told the story of a medical mission to the Dominican Republic that changed the lives of two unlikely missionaries and of a charismatic young boy in need of their help. He also reported the remarkable story of a Portland door-to-door salesman who has successfully walked his route for 35 years, despite being afflicted with cerebral palsy. Another report, on lightning, examined the mysterious and potentially deadly phenomenon and focused on the experiences of individuals who'd survived a close encounter with this force of nature. He also reported on a 35-year-old mother, dying of cancer, who put a lifetime of comfort, advice and opinions on videotape for her young daughter.
Mr. Brown has won numerous awards for his "20/20" reports. During the 1992-93 season, he was honored with the Investigative Reporters Award and an American Bar Association Gavel Award for "To Prove Them Innocent," a report that prompted the release of three men imprisoned for rape in Pennsylvania. A story entitled "The Gift of Life," about a desperately wounded Vietnam soldier and the Army surgeon who had saved his life more than 25 years before, won an Alfred I. duPont Award Silver Baton, an Ohio State Award and a Gabriel Award, among others.
Mr. Brown also received a 1991 honor from the American Women in Radio and Television for his profile of a powerful, ambitious, 96-year-old woman who runs a furniture empire in Nebraska; and a 1990 National Headliner Award for an Outstanding Feature by a Television Network for "Children of Yesterday," about a West German town tracing Holocaust survivors who, as children, had been driven from the town.
He is the recipient of six Emmy awards, his most recent for "Stephani's Triumph," a profile of a young film student who documented her recovery from a devastating accident. He received a Media Award from the President's Committee on Employment of People With Disabilities for his profile of Christopher Nolan; the Media Access Award from the California Governor's Committee for Employment for the Handicapped for his story, "A Very Special Vision," about a blind high school wrestler; the Bronze Wrangler Award for Best Television Documentary Writing from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame for his report, "On the Range"; and the 1994 CINE Golden Eagle Award for the segment "A Dream Come True," the story of a woman who believes she was reincarnated.
Prior to joining "20/20" full-time, Mr. Brown contributed Special Assignment reports on ABC's "World News Tonight," focusing on the 10th anniversary of the Woodstock Music Festival and of the Irish Republican Army, in 1979-80. He also covered the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, NY, for ABC News. He joined ABC News in August 1977 as a New York-based correspondent, after serving as an anchorman and reporter at WFAA-TV, the Network's Dallas affiliate, since February, 1975.
Mr. Brown was an anchor at KHOU-TV in Houston for two years, prior to working in Dallas. He served twice at KOTV in Tulsa, interrupted by a two-year army obligation. He graduated from the University of Tulsa and later taught news writing at that school, and has lectured as part of the Park Distinguished Visitor Series at Ithaca College and as a guest at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Mr. Brown is the author of two high school textbooks, "China and the World" and "United States History, Volume Five."