Barry Serafin (’64 BA Humanities) had a 35-year career as a network news correspondent covering national and international events.

After graduating from WSU, Barry worked as a producer/€“director for KOAP, the public television station in Portland, Oregon. He began his career in broadcast journalism at KOIN-TV in Portland as a reporter/anchor, then moved on to similar duties at KMOX-TV in St. Louis.

In 1969, Barry was hired by CBS News and assigned to its Washington Bureau. Over the next decade he covered a wide variety of stories, ranging from major trials to coal field violence, from presidential campaigns to the scandals leading to the resignations of Vice President Agnew and President Nixon. He received an Emmy Award for his contributions to the broadcast “Watergate: the White House Transcripts.â€

In 1979, Barry moved to ABC News, again covering a wide range of stories. He sub-anchored World News Tonight from Tehran during the Iranian hostage crisis, spent a month reporting from Cuba, spent three months reporting from Argentina during the Falklands War, and covered the Persian Gulf War. Domestically, he covered everything from hurricanes to presidential campaigns and from environmental issues to the standoff between the Montana Freeman and the FBI.

Barry was grateful to receive the WSU Regent Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1991. He retired in 2004 and now lives in his home state of Oregon. He feels fortunate to have had the opportunity to work and compete with the best in the news business, those to whom broadcast journalism was a calling, not a job.