Lewis Winnbert Shollenberger (October 12, 1916 – March 15, 1994) was a correspondent forUnited Press,CBS, andABC in Washington, D.C., from 1940 to 1963. He covered the White House and theU.S. Senate as well as coordinated network coverage of presidential news briefings and debates. He went on to work forRadio Liberty, theSmall Business Administration, and theAdvertising Council.
Shollenberger was born inKansas City, Missouri[1] to Joseph H. and Edith D. Shollenberger.[2] He had at least one brother, named Joseph.[3] He attended high school inLock Haven, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. He graduated fromPennsylvania State University where he was a member ofSigma Pi fraternity. He also took special courses atRavensbourne College inLondon and at Grunewald Gymnasium inBerlin, before graduating.[1] His firstjournalism job was with theLock Haven Express newspaper.[4]
He married Florence E. Long in 1939.[5] They had two children, Lewis Jr. and Carol.[3][6][1]
He moved toArlington County, Virginia, in 1939, where he was able to get a job inWashington, D.C., with United Press.[5] He left United Press in 1942 when he began working for CBS.[5] For the first part ofWorld War II, he covered wartime conferences betweenFranklin D. Roosevelt andWinston Churchill.[4] In 1943 he joined theU.S. Navy, where he served inEurope andNorth Africa as aLieutenant (junior grade).[1][5]
At the end of the war Shollenberger returned to CBS where he covered theWhite House and was a director and producer of special projects. He served in that capacity until 1961.[5][7]
On March 1, 1952, he was in theU.S. House of Representatives at the time of aterrorist attack by thePuerto Rican Nationalist Party. He was quickly on the air to report the attack.[1]
Shollenberger was the co-producer of the first transcontinental television program originating fromSan Francisco, California in 1951[4] and the first telecast of a Presidential Cabinet meeting in October, 1954.[1] He had the distinction of cutting a president off air on live TV. In 1954,Dwight Eisenhower was making a paid political speech fromDenver, Colorado and went over the time that had been agreed on. Shollenberger was not sure what to do so he ran a commercial before going back to programming.[4] The next year, he was assigned to cover President Eisenhower's heart attack.[1]
By 1960, Shollenberger was named to coordinated network coverage of thefirst presidential debate between SenatorJohn F. Kennedy and Vice PresidentRichard M. Nixon.[5] He was the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Radio and Television Correspondents Gallery[8] and had been assigned by CBS News to coverVIPs and delegations at bothpolitical conventions during the presidential election.[9] He was also a member of thePresident's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities.[1]
In 1961, he produced President Kennedy's first live news conference broadcast.[4] Later that year he left CBS to become a News Director for ABC. He stayed there until 1963.[3]
In 1963, Shollenberger left ABC to become the executive director of Radio Liberty inMunich.[3] He was hired byHowland Sargeant to replace Richard Bertrandias. His time at Radio Liberty did not go well. He did not have the international reporting background or decisive leadership style that the position required. After an independent audit of the Munich office, Sargeant let him go in 1966.[10][5]
After leaving Radio Liberty, Shollenberger moderated one episode of the TV showFiring Line withWilliam F. Buckley and SenatorBarry Goldwater.[11] He was then hired to be the director of the information office of the Small Business Administration, where he stayed until 1971. He then became vice president of the Advertising Council. He was with this group until his retirement in 1981.[5]
Shollenberger was a president of theRadio and Television Correspondents' Association. He was a member of the Board of Governors of theNational Press Club,Sigma Delta Chi, theRadio Television News Directors Association,[1] and theNational Presbyterian Church.[5]
Shollenberger was interviewed by theAmerican Journalism Historians Association for itsoral histories project.[12]His son, Lewis Jr., died in 1986, and his wife in 1991. He moved toHightstown, New Jersey during retirement. He died there in 1994.[5]