Jim Hartz, host of the Today Show alongside Barbara Walters in the mid-70s, passed away on April 17. According to his wife, Hartz’s cause of death was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He was 82 years old.
Hartz’s tenure on Today started in the middle of his news career, reporting for WNBC when he received the opportunity to host. He took over for the late Frank McGee, who passed away at 52, offering a balance to Walters on the long-running daytime news magazine.
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His tenure lasted until Walters jetted off to anchor ABC’s evening news and was replaced by Jane Pauley. Hertz’s style and Pauley’s didn’t mesh for producers, so Hertz was moved into a more on-the-go role with the show until leaving in 1976. Hertz returned to local news, becoming an anchor at WRC in Washington. After this, he moved to PBS, co-hosting the celebrity talk show Over Easy with actress Mary Martin and a weekly science program titled Innovation. A funny tidbit is that Hartz’s NBC exit led to him replacing future Barbara Walters co-host Hugh Downs on Over Easy.
Hartz also had some international experience, hosting Asia Now for PBS in a joint production with Japan’s NHK public broadcasting in the ’90s. He would also become chairman of the Will Rogers Memorial Commission in his home state of Oklahoma.
“This remarkable man from Tulsa, who co-hosted the Today Show, among many other broadcast news achievements, came home to help with the Will Rogers Commission and on many other endeavors for his home state,” Oklahoma Gov. David Walters said after his passing. “He carried with him the Oklahoma Standard. God speed, Jim Hartz.”
The former Today anchor was also known as an “aerospace expert” and had a long history with coverage of space missions, including the Apollo 15 launch. He also is one of the few people to have flown the SR-71 blackbird. He attended the 20th anniversary gala for the Apollo 11 project in Houston, Texas, dripping immense praise on the endeavor. He called it “the grandest thing we could think to do…what man can do with a singleness of mind and a clearly defined goal.” The New York Times takes the moment to call out his “folksy” demeanor, describing the landing on the Moon as just going to “check it out- friendly-like.”
The Times adds that Hartz’s elation over the space program and Apollo missions overwhelmed him as a reporter, typically leaving him without memory of his actions or comments on-air. “I was just not prepared for that 36-story building walking right off the platform into the air,” he told The Christian Science Monitor in 1974.
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