SIUC Department of History Alumni Spotlight

Walter C. Rogers

Walter Rogers

For nearly 40 years, Walter Rogers covered the world as a journalist for major news organizations like ABC and CNN. During that time, he reported on the Watergate scandal, the Iran hostage crisis, summits between the Soviet Union and the United States, and the 2003 Iraq War, among many other events.

Rogers first started as a history major though, not as a journalism major. He graduated from SIUC with two degrees in history: a bachelor’s degree in 1962 and Master’s degree in 1964. “Rogers, whose stepfather worked at CBS, decided while in graduate school at the University of Washington to move to Washington, D.C., to ‘try to live some history instead of writing about it.’” He worked his up to be ABC’s bureau chief in Moscow and at the White House. After moving to CNN in 1993, he would eventually be the bureau chief in Jerusalem and he was later named CNN's senior foreign correspondent.

Walter Roger's Book Cover The capstone of his career was covering the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Stationed with the lead elements of the 7th Cavalry Regiment (probably most famous as George Custer's command at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876), Rogers stated that he was at the “tip of the tip of the spear.” He later wrote “Sleeping with Custer and the Seventh Cavalry,” published by SIU Press, which detailed his experiences during the first few weeks of the war when he was an embedded journalist and his reflections from visiting Iraq a year later.

A history degree is not simply about preparing to teach or work in a museum. A history degree prepares people to work in a variety of fields, from teaching to politics, from business to journalism. Walter Rogers is an excellent example of one of the many career paths open to history majors.