Former CNN anchor Aaron Brown, renowned for his acclaimed coverage of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, died Sunday at 76, his family said, per CNN.
Brown, a radio talk show host from Minnesota and longtime ABC News anchor, was most known for his broadcast coverage of the attacks on September 11, 2001.
It was his first appearance on CNN, and an unscheduled one, but Brown jumped into the action. He reported live on the attacks for 17 hours straight.
His coverage from the roof of CNN’s Manhattan office cemented him as a trusted figure for American viewers.
“When he was live on air, he just stopped and looked at it. And paused. And he shared this moment that everybody was thinking, ‘Good Lord. There are no words,’” CNN’s John Vause, who also reported from New York that day, told CNN.
He recalled how Brown removed his reporter hat to react when the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed.
“The South Tower, the second tower. The one on the left collapsed. It collapsed in a cascade of smoke and sparks,” Brown said during his coverage of the attacks. “This is devastation. There are 50,000 people who normally go to work in the Trade Center buildings.”
The following year, Brown won the Edward R. Murrow award for his 9/11 coverage, but he remained humble about his work that day and in awe of first responders.
“I think when that building fell, I understood better than any other point in my life, before or since, what a hero meant,” he said in 2016.
Former CNN producers praised Brown for his mentorship and sharp writing skills.
Vause said Brown taught him that it was okay to say “I don’t know” as a journalist, while David Fitzpatrick, a producer who worked with Brown on the acclaimed coverage of the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia, said Brown always wanted to work with “the very best of people.”
“It was remarkable when we received a compliment from him,” Fitzpatrick told CNN. “He was a signature anchor during his prime time. His legacy will mean concise writing, concise presentation, and a calm demeanor in the face of crisis. Impactful, insightful, and measured.”
Brown won a number of accolades throughout his career in journalism, including three Emmy Awards.
Prior to joining CNN, Brown moved to New York City from Seattle, Washington — where he had worked at local TV stations for about 15 years — to be the founding anchor of ABC’s “World News Now.”
He worked at ABC for nearly a decade, leaving “World News Now” to work as a reporter for “World News Tonight” with Peter Jennings and “Nightline.” He later anchored the Sunday version of “Good Morning America.”
In Minneapolis, Brown had hosted a radio talk show before attending the University of Minnesota and dropping out to serve in the Coast Guard Reserve, according to the university.
After leaving CNN, he worked as the Rhodes chair in public policy and American institutions at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, becoming a respected lecturer — what Vause called a “full circle” moment, per CNN.
