Wes Vernon, NPC Golden Owl, dies at 89

Wes Vernon, a pioneer in American radio news and proud National Press Club member for 53 years making him a Golden Owl, passed away on Sunday, Aug. 8, due to complications from Alzheimer’s disease. He was 89 years old.

Earlier this year, Vernon’s family established the Wes Vernon Broadcast Scholarship through the National Press Club Journalism Institute to both honor his prolific career and to remove educational barriers for students from backgrounds underrepresented in broadcast journalism.

“It’s so meaningful for my family to preserve his legacy in this way,” said his daughter Diane Powell earlier this year. “We hope it will provide aid to students with his passion for broadcast news.”

Weston Vernon III was born on Aug. 23, 1931, in New York City. The broadcaster, reporter, writer and commentator spent nearly five decades on the air in Washington, D.C., Utah, Wyoming and Montana.

The airwaves first called him at age 18, when he earned a job as a disc jockey and after a year of studying journalism at Utah State University. That job would launch his career in local news.

Vernon's early start as a DJ for several radio stations in the west segued into the developing field of local news reporting at KBMY in Billings, Montana. In 1963, he became a news director and political specialist for KSL Radio-TV in Salt Lake City. Five years later, Vernon was chosen by KSL's parent company, Bonneville International, to become the chief of its new Washington D.C. News Bureau.

He joined the CBS Radio Stations News Service as a Washington correspondent in 1972. In 1975, he added duties as host for the CBS program "Crosstalk". He spent the next 25 years reporting on various national and regional news stories as well as Democratic and Republican conventions for seven CBS-owned and -operated stations in seven major markets.

After retiring from CBS in 1997, Vernon was a freelance writer/columnist for a number of publications and websites, including NewsMax and Renew America. He wrote book reviews for the Washington Times, specializing in political nonfiction and served as a guest host for the Radio America network. 

Vernon received the Reed Irvine Award in 2010 from Accuracy in Media recognizing Vernon's "great contribution to freedom's cause, and his promotion of accurate, balanced and honest news reporting."

While working for KBUH in Brigham City, Utah, he met his wife, Alida Steinvoort. Her high school class toured the station one afternoon, and she called that evening to request a song, which led to a date. They were married for nearly 70 years. He is survived by his wife, Alida, and their children: Rosanne (Charles) Frank of Silver Spring, Maryland & Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Weston Vernon IV, of Olney, Maryland; Diane (Andrew) Powell of San Francisco, California; and John Randall (Susie) Vernon, of Lake Wylie, South Carolina, plus seven grandchildren and three great-grandsons.

Services will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 21, at the Logan City Cemetery in Logan, Utah.

Donations may be made in Vernon’s memory to the Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation.