Cronkite was much decorated newsman

NEW YORK, July 17 (UPI) -- Walter Cronkite, who died Friday at 92, was a much honored U.S. journalist and a recipient of a Medal of Freedom and a Peabody Award.

Cronkite received the George Foster Peabody Award in 1962 for his work on the "CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite," "CBS Reports," "The Twentieth Century," "CBS News Special Reports" and his coverage of the U.S. space program.

President Jimmy Carter awarded Cronkite the Medal of Freedom -- the highest civilian award the United States confers -- in 1981.

Cronkite was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame in 1985.

In a nationwide survey in 1972, he was named "the most trusted man in America."

He was the only newsman to serve as national president of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and was a member of the advisory board of the University of Texas School of Journalism.

Cronkite won Emmys for his coverage of the July 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing and his 1971 coverage of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission and the follow-up Apollo 14 mission. He also won Emmys for his 1970 series, "Can the World Be Saved?" and his coverage of the 1973 resignation of U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew.

In October 1973, he received the National Press Club's first Fourth Estate award for "outstanding performance for more than 40 years in both the electronic and print media."

Cronkite was named Broadcaster of the Year by the International Radio and Television Society in 1971 and received the Freedom of the Press Award from the George Polk Memorial Award Committee.

On its 50th anniversary in May 1970, the American Civil Liberties Union saluted Cronkite for "distinguished public service in the defense and practice of the First Amendment."

He was the 1970 recipient of the Bradford Washburn Award given by the Boston Museum of Science for his "superlative presentation of the U.S. Space Program."

In 1969, he was the first broadcast journalist to receive the William Allen White Award for Journalistic Merit, and was cited for his "30-year record of excellence as a reporter, foreign correspondent and commentator," which "has earned the admiration of a nation," and for his "editorial integrity, his compassion for his fellow men and his sharp-honed communications skills."