Thomas Grandin (July 19, 1907 – October, 19 1977) was an American broadcast journalist during World War II. He was an original member of a team of reporters and war correspondents known as the Murrow Boys.

Early career

Grandin was born in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

. He graduated from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in 1930 and studied international law at the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

and the

École des sciences politiques , motto_lang = fr , mottoeng = Roots of the Future , type = Public research university''Grande école'' , established = , founder = Émile Boutmy , accreditation ...

in Paris. In Paris, Grandin worked at the International Chamber of Commerce.

Journalist

In 1939, Grandin became the second reporter hired by Edward R. Murrow and one of the original Murrow Boys. Murrow hired Grandin, who had no journalism experience, mostly for Grandin's language skills and his expertise in international issues. Grandin began covering Paris for Murrow and CBS but abruptly left Europe in 1940. Paris fell to the German onslaught in 1940, and Grandin decided that he had to return to the United States. His reasons were personal. Initially, Grandin intended to send only his wife back to the US, but because she was Romanian and lacked an American passport, she would not have been allowed into the country without him. Murrow understood Grandin's reasoning, but others at CBS, including

William Shirer William Lawrence Shirer (; February 23, 1904 – December 28, 1993) was an American journalist and war correspondent. He wrote ''The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich'', a history of Nazi Germany that has been read by many and cited in scholarly w ...

, saw Grandin as a deserter. In 1944, Grandin took a job with ABC News in covering the war. In June of that year he accompanied the first American troops to land at

Omaha Beach Omaha Beach was one of five beach landing sectors designated for the amphibious assault component of operation Overlord during the Second World War. On June 6, 1944, the Allies invaded German-occupied France with the Normandy landings. "Omaha" r ...

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

. Grandin retired from broadcasting after the war and went to work as a sales executive.

Early career

Journalist

References

Further reading