(In this rare book of remembrance and love and loneliness,...)
In this rare book of remembrance and love and loneliness, Ed Bliss chronicles Lois’s six-year journey into darkness. Spare, gentle, restrained, Bliss’s account of Lois’s struggle with Alzheimer’s is an unforgettable account of loss - whether of the ability to speak and write or even to eat - and helplessness in the face of a disease that knows no cure. Ed Bliss captures not just the terrible course of the disease, but the small moments that marked each stage of their last years together, from the last time Lois legibly wrote her name or went shopping to an unexpected joy because her Red Sox had won a game.
Edward Bliss was a television writer, producer, and editor who worked with such famous broadcasters as Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite. He spent a quarter-century at the network that was then the dominant force in broadcast journalism. Bliss wrote several well-received books and taught journalism.
Background
Edward Bliss was born on July 30, 1912, in Foochow, Fujian, China, as the son of a Protestant medical missionary. His father, Edward Lydston Bliss, was a physician, and his mother, May Bortz Bliss, was a teacher. They lived in China until he was nine and then Bliss grew up in Massachusetts. He first intended to become a doctor like his father, but switched to journalism.
Education
Edward Bliss attended Northfield Mount Hermon School. He studied journalism at Yale University and graduated in 1935.
From 1935 to 1943 Edward Bliss worked as a newspaper reporter in Ohio before being hired by the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) as a reporter, writer, and editor. He remained with CBS until 1968, working on such programs as CBS Reports and CBS News with Walter Cronkite before joining the faculty at American University as a journalism professor. He founded the university’s School of Communications, teaching there until his retirement in 1977.
Bliss then spent the remainder of his career as a consultant to various broadcasting companies in the United States and Canada, retiring in 1997.
After retirement, Bliss continued to write, publishing "Now the News, The Story of Broadcast Journalism," in 1991. He also published "Beyond the Stone Arches," a book about his father, and edited a book called "In Search of Light: The Broadcasts of Edward R.Murrow."
At the time of his death, Bliss had just completed a book about his wife’s struggle with Alzheimer’s disease, that was scheduled to be published in 2003.
Edward Bliss thought that you couldn’t write about something you didn’t understand: "There is a correlation between clear writing - clarity of language - and clear thought. You must know in your mind, clearly, the meaning of a story before you can report it clearly. The listener cannot understand until, first, you understand. You can't be lucid about something that is murky to you. Your grasp of the story is required."
Personality
Edward Bliss was engaged and he was passionate. That was true of his relationships with his colleagues at CBS and in journalism education, with his students and former students, with his family and friends.
Edward Bliss was gentle. His former CBS colleague and friend, Merv Block, said that one of Ed’s favorite sayings was "to be hard on copy, but not on people."
Legions of former students tell about how Edward Bliss quietly, clearly, and with good humor, would correct their writing lunders. He was a demanding instructor.
Connections
Edward Bliss married Lois Arnette on August 26, 1940. They had two daughters, three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
The award was received for television work from the RadioTelevision News Directors Association in 1993.
The award was received for television work from the RadioTelevision News Directors Association in 1993.
Distinguished Broadcast Journalism Educator,
United States
It was given by the leading organization of college journalism teachers and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in 1984.
It was given by the leading organization of college journalism teachers and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in 1984.
Distinguished Service in Local Journalism Award,
United States
It was given in 2002 by the Society of Professional Journalists D.C. Chapter, to honor Edwad Bliss' contribution to the development of local journalism and journalists as well as his contribution to the metropolitan Washington community.
It was given in 2002 by the Society of Professional Journalists D.C. Chapter, to honor Edwad Bliss' contribution to the development of local journalism and journalists as well as his contribution to the metropolitan Washington community.