Career
He was employed by National Broadcasting Company News for 28 years and previously worked for American Broadcasting Company News, Columbia Broadcasting System News, and Visnews. Aspell began his career as a scriptwriter and cameraman in 1970 with Visnews. He was among the few foreign journalists who remained in Southeast Asia when Saigon fell to communist forces on April 30, 1975.
From 1975 to 1978, he was a freelance cameraman in the Middle East.
In 1978, he joined Columbia Broadcasting System News as a cameraman covering Beirut, where he then worked as a producer for American Broadcasting Company News from 1981 to 1983. In 1985, he was hired by National Broadcasting Company News as a producer based in Cyprus.
He then became a foreign correspondent covering major events around the world. His first on-air report for National Broadcasting Company was from Baghdad in August 1990 after Iraq invaded Kuwait.
From 1992 on, he spent considerable time covering the war-torn region of Bosnia.
Aspell died on February 11, 2013, following a two-year battle with lung cancer. He was 62. Brian Williams, the anchor and managing editor of National Broadcasting Company Nightly News, said Aspell was a journalist with "an intense brand of cool under fire". National Broadcasting Company News president Steve Capus described Aspell as "understated, selfless, perpetually cool, shrewd, wry, curmudgeonly, and a damn good reporter".
