Journalist, Television Broadcaster. He was most remembered for his weekly broadcast "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney," a part of the CBS Television news program "60 Minutes" (from 1978 to 2011). His final appearance on 60 Minutes aired on October 2, 2011, in which he indicated that he would be back for periodic commentary; he would die just five weeks later. Born Andrew Aitken Rooney in Albany, New York, he was the son of Walter Scott Rooney and Ellinor (Reynolds) Rooney. He attended the Albany Academy and later, Colgate University in Hamilton, NY. In August 1941, he was drafted into the US Army during the Presidential Emergency which resulted in the 1940 Peacetime draft. The drafted men were initially to serve in the US Army for one year, but two extensions to the draft saw their service extended to the duration of the War plus six months. In April 1942, he married Marguerite "Margie" Howard; they would have four children. She would pass away in 2004 of heart failure. Rooney began his newspaper career by writing articles for the Stars and Stripes newspaper in London, in 1942. In February 1943, he was one of six correspondents to fly on the second American bombing raid over Germany, and in 1944, he was one of the first Americans into Paris, France, in the advance of American troops. In 1945, he was one of the first American journalists to visit the newly liberated Nazi concentration camps, and would be one of the first to write about the experience. Before the war, Rooney admitted he was a pacifist and opposed to war; after visiting the concentration camps, he realized that "just wars" existed. He would be awarded the Bronze Star Medal for his military reporting. Released from military service, he joined CBS in 1949 as a writer for the "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts" radio show. He would later become a writer for the CBS television program, "The Garry Moore Show". From 1962 to 1968, he wrote and produced with his close friend, CBS Correspondent Harry Reasoner, specials on a variety of topics, including bridges (1965), hotels (1966), women (1967), and the English Language (1968). His special on Black America (1968) won him his first of four Emmy awards. He would occasionally disagree with CBS on subject matters, and would break with them to be heard. In 1970, his special on War was turned down by CBS, so he quit and read the program on PBS, earning his third Writers Guild Award. He rejoined CBS in 1973, and continued to write additional specials. In 1978, he began speaking a short commentary segment at the end of the show on "60 Minutes," which became so popular that it soon replaced the end of the show segment of "Point / Counterpoint" with Shana Alexander and James Kilpatrick. This segment would continue until his last commentary in October 2011, with only a couple of interruptions, making it one of the longest running series of commentaries in television. In perhaps his most noticeable difficulty of his long career, in 1990, Rooney made a negative comment about homosexual unions, which resulted in his being suspended for three months without pay. After only four weeks without Rooney, "60 Minutes" dropped 20 percent of its audience, and surveys showed that the American public wanted to see him returned immediately to "60 Minutes;" he returned the next month. Over the course of his career, he would write 16 books about his life. He made his last public appearance on October 2, 2011, and was hospitalized on October 25 from postoperative complications of surgery. He died on November 4, at the age of 92, about five weeks after his last appearance on "60 Minutes."