Man of the millions, legendary Pulitzer Prize winning U.S. broadcaster and author, Louis "Studs" Terkel passed away on October 31 at age 96.
Terkel became best known for his interviews chronicling some of America's hardest years, through the eyes of the working masses.
His approach of amplifying the voices of the voiceless was an essential part of his various radio shows, plays, tv shows and books including Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression (1970) and Working (1974).
His work became so synonymous with the struggle for a better world that he drew the eyer of authorties during the McCarthyist, anti-communist witch hunts during the 1950's. NBC chose to cancel his popular, but short lived, television show, Studs' Place, after he refused to say he was duped into signing political petitions by the Communist Party.
Studs represented a kind of journalism that has become a rare commodity in today's media environment. Never afraid of his radicalism, Terkel became a man dedicated to another vision of not only his own profession, but to the world as a whole.
He will be missed.
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