The Today Show host Jim Hartz died last week at the age of 82, according to Deadline. His wife revealed that he passed from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Born in 1940 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Hartz began his career after college as a reporter for KOTV in Tulsa while hosting the channel’s morning show, Sun Up. He then left for NBC in New York, anchoring for WNBC before he was tapped to host the Today Show opposite Barbara Walters in 1974.
During his tenure at the Today Show, Hartz covered the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon, the conclusion of the Vietnam War and the American Bicentennial. However, he was an anchor at the show until 1976, when he became an evening news coanchor at ABC. By the early 1990s, Hartz moved to PBS to host a joint production with Japan’s NHK public broadcasting company – Asia Now.
Hartz later became chairman of the Will Rogers Memorial Commission in Claremore, Oklahoma. He is survived by his wife Alexandra Dickson Hartz, his two daughters Jana Hartz Maher and Nancy Hartz Cole, his six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.