Barry Rex Petersen is an American journalist, author, and CBS News correspondent whose career has included newspaper reporting, television anchoring, and foreign correspondence from Tokyo, Moscow, London, and other international centers. His reporting has received major journalism honors, and his memoir Jan's Story examined his wife Jan Chorlton's early-onset Alzheimer's disease.
Background
Barry Rex Petersen was born on January 14, 1949, in Norfolk, Virginia, to Kermit Petersen and Mavis Lucille Sutton Petersen. He attended high school in Sidney, Montana, connecting his early life with the American West before pursuing journalism in Illinois.
Petersen married Sandra H. Petersen in 1971; they had two daughters, Emily Jensine and Juliette Rose. After divorcing in 1984, he married journalist Jan Chorlton on February 14, 1985. Chorlton later developed early-onset Alzheimer's disease, an experience Petersen documented in his memoir Jan's Story.
Education
Petersen studied journalism at Northwestern University, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Journalism in 1970 and a Master of Science in Journalism in 1972. Both degrees were earned through the university's Medill School of Journalism, one of the United States' established professional journalism schools and a major center for reporting, media, and communications education.
In 1990, Petersen returned to Northwestern as the Josephine B. and Newton N. Minow visiting professor in communications. The appointment connected his international reporting experience with a university tradition that combines professional journalism education, research, and public communication.
Career
Petersen began in newspaper journalism as a sports columnist for the Sidney Herald in Montana from 1964 to 1966. He later worked as a city hall reporter for the Arlington Heights Day in Illinois from 1968 to 1969, and as a columnist and copy editor for Chicago Today from 1970 to 1971. During this period he was also associated with the Daily Northwestern and reported for the Milwaukee Journal.
His early broadcasting work included investigative reporting at WITI-TV in Milwaukee from 1972 to 1974 and reporting and anchoring for the Washburn Crosby Company television station in Minneapolis from 1974 to 1978. These stations belonged to the expanding American local-television news system, in which reporters increasingly combined field reporting, live broadcasting, and on-air presentation.
Petersen joined CBS News in 1978 and served as a correspondent in Los Angeles from 1978 to 1981 and San Francisco from 1981 to 1985. From international bureaus he reported from Tokyo in 1986–1988, Moscow in 1988–1990, London in 1991–1995, and Tokyo again from 1995. His overseas reporting covered wars, political transitions, natural disasters, social change, and cultural stories across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
While based in Moscow, Petersen covered Mikhail Gorbachev's summit travel and the Soviet Union's final years, including Lithuania's declaration of independence in 1990. His reporting also included the Tiananmen Square democracy uprising, the Bosnian war, the Asian tsunami, the conflict in Iraq, and the first network news report on AIDS while he was based in San Francisco. He later reported primarily for CBS Evening News and CBS Sunday Morning, and lived in Denver while continuing his association with CBS News.
Achievements
Petersen shared an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award and a George Foster Peabody Award as part of CBS Radio's coverage of the 1989 democracy uprising at Tiananmen Square.
While serving as a CBS correspondent, Petersen reported from major international conflicts and political transitions, including the Bosnian war, the final years of the Soviet Union, the Iraq War, and the Tiananmen Square democracy uprising.
Petersen produced an early network news report on AIDS while based in San Francisco, when the disease was still emerging as a major public-health and social issue.
His reporting on his wife Jan Chorlton's early-onset Alzheimer's disease became the basis for the memoir Jan's Story, which addressed the experience of family caregiving.
(Petersen's memoir recounts his marriage to Jan Chorlton, ...)
2010
Religion
Petersen is identified with Lutheran Christianity, a Protestant tradition that emerged from the sixteenth-century Reformation through the teachings of Martin Luther. Lutheran theology emphasizes justification by faith, the authority of Scripture, and the importance of preaching and sacramental worship.
His documented religious affiliation is Lutheran; no more specific account of his personal theological views or religious practice is established.
Views
Petersen's published reflections on caregiving emphasize the need to protect caregivers as well as people living with Alzheimer's disease. His account presents caregiving as a continuing human responsibility that requires acknowledging grief, preserving dignity, and seeking a life beyond the illness.
Membership
Petersen was associated with the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan and the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China, organizations that provide professional communities and working resources for journalists reporting across national borders. He also served as president of AFRTA in Milwaukee from 1973 to 1974.
Member.
Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan
,
Japan
Member.
Foreign Correspondents' Club of China
,
China
President.
AFRTA
,
United States
1973 - 1974
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
The Asian American Journalists Association honored Petersen in 2009 for his body of reporting from Asia and praised his writing as extraordinary.
Interests
Sailing, travel, and international real estate.
Connections
Petersen married Sandra H. Petersen on June 7, 1971; their marriage ended in divorce in December 1984. They had two daughters, Emily Jensine and Juliette Rose.
He married Jan Chorlton on February 14, 1985. Chorlton was a journalist and television correspondent who worked for CBS News in Japan and the former Soviet Union. Petersen's memoir Jan's Story described her early-onset Alzheimer's disease and the effect of the illness on their family life; Chorlton died on May 11, 2013.
Father:
Kermit Petersen
Mother:
Mavis Lucille Sutton Petersen
Daughter:
Emily Jensine Petersen
Daughter:
Juliette Rose Petersen
Wife:
Jan Chorlton
Journalist and television correspondent who worked for CBS News in Japan and the former Soviet Union; she died on May 11, 2013.
Wife:
Sandra H. Petersen
Barry Petersen's first wife; their marriage lasted from 1971 until their divorce in 1984.
