GRANDVIEW-ON-HUDSON, N.Y., Jan. 29 (UPI) -- Award-winning CBS News director Arthur Bloom, who helped create "60 Minutes" and donated his watch for its opening credits, has died at age 63.
Bloom died of lung cancer Saturday at his home in Grandview-on-Hudson, N.Y., the New York Daily News reported Sunday.
Bloom spent his entire 45-year career with CBS although he only worked occasionally in the past three years as his disease grew worse, the Daily News said.
In addition to shaping "60 Minutes," Bloom helped train Dan Rather to take over Walter Cronkite's anchor chair in 1981, CBS said.
He was awarded the Directors Guild of America's first Lifetime Achievement Award in News Direction in 1995. He also received awards for CBS News' coverage of the 1976 Democratic and Republican conventions and for "60 Minutes" in 1973.
