T
hey say if you do what you love you'll never work a day in your life.
Morley Safer did what he loved. Right up to the very end.
Safer died Thursday in New York at the age of 84, just a week after announcing his retirement from CBS TV's "60 Minutes."
He was on the show for 46 years. No one else in primetime TV history has ever spent so long on any one show.
Safer was Canadian by birth and began his career as a newspaper reporter, moving on to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. While based in London for the CBC, CBS News hired him as a correspondent for "The CBS Evening News," hosted by Walter Cronkite.
Safer made his name as a war correspondent in Vietnam and did three tours as the head of the Saigon bureau.
But he didn't stay in Saigon.
Safer was out in the field much of the time, reporting on troops in combat. At one point, his helicopter was shot down and he continued to report from the battlefield.
In addition to his reporting from Vietnam, he covered conflicts from the front lines in Biafra, the Middle East and Czechoslovakia during the Russian invasion of 1968.
In 1967, he became the first journalist for a U.S. news network to broadcast from inside Red China, posing as a Canadian tourist visiting to study archaeology.
He joined "60 Minutes" in 1970, replacing Harry Reasoner, who left for ABC. It was the show's third season, ratings were low, and every week was a struggle against cancellation.
Safer was equally at home doing hard investigative reports and softer feature stories. Before long, Safer, along with colleagues Mike Wallace and Dan Rather, had the show at the top of the ratings.
He continued at "60 Minutes" for almost five decades, outlasting a number of co-hosts. The only thing that would stop him was declining health.
Safer was a towering figure in broadcast journalism, combining courage and compassion.
And though he was on the job almost to the last minute, he never had to work a day in his life. That's a lesson for all of us.