Siena College recognizes the distinguished career of Dan Rather, former Anchor and Managing Editor of the CBS Evening News; former Correspondent for 60 Minutes and 60 Minutes II and other CBS News programs; and since November 2006, Anchor and Managing Editor of HDNet's Dan Rather Reports.

Beginning his career with the Associated Press in 1950 and later with United Press International, he then transitioned to local Texas radio and television. Dan Rather joined CBS News in 1962 as its Southwest Bureau Chief in Dallas. Subsequently, he was assigned as the Southern Bureau Chief in New Orleans, as well as Bureau Chief in London and Saigon. He served as the CBS News White House Correspondent in 1964, and later from 1966 to 1974, during both the Johnson and Nixon administrations. Throughout this period, he reported extensively on the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandals, and was highly regarded for his on-the-scene reporting of President Kennedy's assassination in 1963.

In 1981, Dan Rather succeeded Walter Cronkite as Anchor and Managing Editor of the CBS Evening News, and served in that position until his retirement in 2005, the longest such tenure in broadcast journalism. He was additionally a Correspondent for 60 Minutes from October 1975 to September 1981, and again from March 2005 through the Summer of 2006. He also served as a Correspondent for 60 Minutes II from 1999 to 2005. Mr. Rather anchored and reported for 48 Hours from 1988 to 2002. From 1981 to 2004, he was heard weekdays on Dan Rather Reporting, a program of CBS News Radio.

Mr. Rather has interviewed most of the world's major political and social figures of the last 50 years, including every American President from Dwight Eisenhower to George W. Bush. Among the more recent stories he has covered were the war in Bosnia; Hong Kong's turnover to China; and the Russian elections in 2000. He received praise for his live, extensive coverage of the September 11th attacks. He has also reported extensively on China, Haiti, and the Middle East. CBS News won a 2004 Peabody Award for 60 Minutes II: Abuse at Abu Ghraib, his report that broke the story of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib Prison near Baghdad. He is also the recipient of numerous other honors, including several Emmy Awards.

Dan Rather has written several books including The Camera Never Blinks: Adventures of a TV Journalist (1977); The Camera Never Blinks Twice: Further Adventures of a Television JournalistT (1994); and The American Dream: Stories from the Heart of Our Nation (2001).

A journalism graduate of Sam Houston State University in 1953, and later an instructor at the university, Mr. Rather was honored in 1994 with the naming of the university's Journalism and Communications Building. Siena College is honored to award Dan Rather, one of the most distinguished Journalists in broadcast journalism history, the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.