Alumni Hall of Fame
Stewart K. Dan
Stewart K. Dan graduated from UIUC in 1962. While a student he won an audition as a radio talk show host at WPGU. After graduation he worked at a variety of radio stations in Illinois and Indiana. In radio he worked as a news reporter, anchor and director, as well as a talk show host. In early 1971 he moved to television at WGR-TV in Buffalo, NY. At WGR-TV he initially served as the news anchor, weatherman, reporter and movie host. In 1975 he became the news director and WGR experienced the highest news audience shares in the station’s history; it was listed in Nielsen’s rating as one of the fastest growing news program in the country’s top thirty markets. In 1980 he moved to Chicago to become the Midwest producer of the NBC News Today Show; he also worked as a producer for NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw. In 1996 he was named NBC News Midwest Bureau Chief.
Mr. Dan has been the recipient of two EMMY awards for Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking Story (1994, 1998); both dealt with his coverage of floods on the Mississippi River. He also received an EMMY nomination for Outstanding Programming Achievement in 1982. In both 1988 and 1989 he was given the National Association of Professional Communicators Gabriel Award; in 1996 he was given the University of Illinois LAS Alumni Achievement Award.
Dan’s liberal arts education has been reflected in the insights he has brought to the wide array of stories he has produced. A profile on retired University of Illinois Professor of Music William Warfield earned him an award from the Retirement Research Foundation. A story on former basketball star Bob Love’s work to overcome stuttering generated a record 11,430 calls to the Stuttering Foundation of America’s toll-free number the month it was aired. Other pieces include one on President Carter’s work with Habitat for Humanity; a Memorial Day tribute to veterans, featuring a long-time volunteer at a Veterans Hospital in suburban Chicago; and coverage of the America’s Cup races in Australia and the Olympics in South Korea, the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, the OJ Simpson trial, hurricanes in Florida, Louisiana and Texas, and the prison riot in Lucasville, Ohio.