CLASS OF 1972
Charles P. Arnot was born in Scribner, Nebraska and lived in Fremont where he later graduated from Midland Luthern College. Arnot began his foreign reporting career with United Press International wire service covering the Pacific theater in World War II. He saw plenty of battles and watched the sinking of the U.S.S. Hornet and covered the battle of Guadalcanal and the invasion of Guam. Toward the war’s end, he transferred to Europe and chronicled the aftermath of the Allied victory over the Nazis. As director of Amerika-Dienst, news and feature service of the U. S. High Commission in Germany, he was passing the ammunition to German Newspapers in the cold war against Russian propaganda.
Arnot joined ABC News in 1956. He reported on several conflicts in Korea, Cyprus and Egypt duirng the 1950’s. Also during the decade he held bureau chief positions for ABC News in Cairo and Nairobi.
He was ABC News’ Saigon bureau chief in 1963 for two years. After South Vietnam, he served as Rome bureau chief for three years. Then in 1969, he was renamed Siagon bureau chief, where he remained for two years.
After 15 years abroad, he returned to ABC News in Nework in 1970 to handle the network’s weekend radio news operations.
He was honored by the Overseas Press Club of America in 1963 for best television reporting abroad the previous year, and was co-recipient of the Lowell Thomas Award in 1975 for the ABC News piece, “Scenes From a War.”
Arnot passed away in 1998 in Prescott, Arizona, where he had retired several years prior. He was 81.
