Brokaw is the recipient of the Ken Burns Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes people who have made an impact on the arts through history-related projects.
Tom Brokaw
STURBRIDGE — Tom Brokaw, one of America's most trusted news men and author of the best-selling book "The Greatest Generation," is slated to receive the Ken Burns Lifetime Achievement Award on Tuesday evening at Old Sturbridge Village.
Burns, the filmmaker best known for documentaries on such subjects as baseball, the Civil War and Thomas Jefferson, among numerous other topics, is expected to present the award to Brokaw, the former NBC News anchor and celebrated author, at 8 p.m. at the living history museum in Sturbridge.
Brokaw and Burns are expected to attend a question-and-answer session with reporters in the Fuller Conference Center prior to the awards ceremony, which will be held in the 300-seat Stephen M. Brewer Theater.
The annual honor recognizes someone who has made an impact on the arts through history-related projects. Burns' first documentary film, 1975's "Working in Rural New England," was about Old Sturbridge Village, and he made it while he was a student at Hampshire College in Amherst. It was the very first time he used the camera panning technique that later came to be known as the "Ken Burns Effect."
Brokaw, a native of South Dakota, has won every major award in broadcast journalism, including a Peabody Award, two duPonts, and several Emmys. He received numerous accolades and honors during his 21-year span as anchor and managing editor of "NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw." Some of the most prestigious honors included the Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award. Brokaw also has been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Filmmaker Ken Burns stands outside Fenway Park in Boston in this September 2010 file photo from the Associated Press.
During his long career with NBC, he was White House correspondent during the Watergate scandal, anchor of the "Today Show," and anchor and managing editor of the network's nightly national news broadcast, making him a household name in most American families. Brokaw is currently an NBC News special correspondent who appears regularly on the network, including during the recent presidential election coverage.
Burns, meanwhile, credits his 1975 film about Old Sturbridge Village as the jumping off point for his long career as a documentary filmmaker. "My professional life began here at Old Sturbridge Village," he said. The Walpole, N.H., resident has gone on to produce documentaries focusing on such quintessentially American topics as baseball, jazz, Thomas Jefferson, the national park system and the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
His films have earned him twelve Emmy Awards and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Two of his 1980s-era films – one on the Brooklyn Bridge, the other on the Statue of Liberty – have been nominated for the Oscar Award, the U.S. film industry's highest honor.
His Emmys were for the 1994 documentary series "Baseball," an 18½-hour homage to America's pastime, and the 2009 series titled "The National Parks: America's Best Idea."
Laura Linney
Old Sturbridge, which depicts life in rural New England in the 1830s, is the largest outdoor history museum in the Northeast. The village includes a working farm, more than 40 original buildings that were brought to the Sturbridge museum, where each structure was carefully restored, and historical re-enactment actors dressed in period garb.
Old Sturbridge honored Burns in 2008 for his commitment to making history accessible to the public. Through the annual Ken Burns Lifetime Achievement Award, he and the Village continue to honor individuals who have made a significant contribution to the preservation of history through the arts.
Past recipients include actress Laura Linney, who was honored in 2009 for her Emmy Award-winning portrayal of Abigail Adams in the HBO series "John Adams"; the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, who was honored in 2010; and the award-winning actor Sam Waterston, who was honored in 2011 for his many history-based performances, including his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in the Tony Award-winning play "Abe Lincoln in Illinois."