Veteran newsman tom brokaw 2005 inspire award honoree -- aarp the magazine

INSPIRE AWARDS 2005 HONOREES Richard Gere Tom Brokaw Alice Coles William Donaldson Antonia Hernández Princess Yasmin Aga Khan Linda Saif Jane Seymour George Wein Gloria White-Hammond INSPIRE

AWARDS When Tom Brokaw stepped down in December as anchor and managing editor of _NBC Nightly News_, it signaled not just the end of his 21-year stint as the handsomely chiseled face of his

network's news division; it also marked the end of an era. "When I came up in the business, the world was seen through the prism of white middle-aged guys on the Eastern

seaboard," Brokaw says. The trusted newsman helped change all that, scoring a string of exclusive interviews with such high-profile world leaders as Mikhail Gorbachev and the Dalai

Lama, and reporting directly from the scene in hot spots across the globe. He was the only evening news anchor in Berlin the night the Berlin Wall fell and the first to report from the site

of the Oklahoma City bombing. Now, cut loose from the rigors of a daily program, the newsman says he's eager to get on with his non-TV life. "Walter and Betsy Cronkite are role

models for [my wife] Meredith and me," Brokaw says. "The energy they cast across a wide spectrum of interests inspires me." Brokaw's own interests post retirement include

a visit to New Zealand and possibly even a new book. "I'm ready to try some new things," he says. "That's what life is all about." _*The name of this award was

originally the Impact Award. In 2008, the awards were renamed as the Inspire Awards._