Education
West Virginia University.
West Virginia University.
During World World War II, he was assigned to the United States Army Counterintelligence Corps (Counter Intelligence Corps) in London in 1942. He was "named head of counterintelligence in Paris and enter Dachau with the 45th Division in April 1945."
In 1953, he became a radio stringer in Cairo, where he met up with "former Counter Intelligence Corps roommates from London, James Eichelberger and Miles Copeland, Junior."
Kearns covered several Middle East conflicts including Egypt"s Suez Crisis and the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War. He was named a network staff correspondent with Columbia Broadcasting System on September 25, 1958.
He reported from news bureaus in London, Paris, Moscow and Rome.
Four years later, he was named the Columbia Broadcasting System News Africa Bureau Chief. From a base in London, he reported on numerous wars and disputes including Rhodesia’s bid for independence, the civil war in Biafra and the bloody conflicts in the Congo Crisis.
In 1971, Kearns left Columbia Broadcasting System News to accept a teaching position at his alma mater West Virginia University, where he served as a distinguished Benedum Professor of Journalism. In 1976, Sig Mickelson, the former president of Columbia Broadcasting System News, told a United States Senate committee that during his early years as a “stringer” (part-time reporter) in Egypt, Kearns had United States. Central Intelligence Agency "connections." In addition, the press alleged that the Central Intelligence Agency relationship had been approved by senior Columbia Broadcasting System management.
In 1983, Kearns retired from the classroom and settled in Sardinia, Italy, where he spent the last three years of his life.
Frank Kearns died of cancer on August 1, 1986 at age 68 at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. In announcing his death on The Columbia Broadcasting System Evening News, Dan Rather remarked, "His reporting on Columbia Broadcasting System radio and television came mostly from datelines such as Baghdad, Khartoum, Yemen and the Congo. He took the tough stories and never complained..Legend may be an overworked word among journalists, but in his quiet, courageous way, Frank Kearns was one around here.".