Charles Collingwood was the youngest of "Murrow's Boys," a group of reporters hired by Edward R. Murrow to cover World War II in Europe for the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). Collingwood made a name for himself as a war correspondent by scooping his newspaper colleagues. By his 26th birthday, he was a top radio reporter with a great news sense and natural radio voice.

Collingwood was born in Three Rivers, Michigan, in 1917. Shortly thereafter, his father was appointed to a professorship of forestry at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. This was one of many moves during his childhood. Despite this lack of stability, he was an outstanding student. In high school, he was president of the Student Council and a member of the National Honor Society. Upon graduation, he received a scholarship to Deep Springs School in California, a ranch school that consisted of 20 students taught by five professors under the Oxford tutorial system.

In 1937 Collingwood attended Cornell University and majored in pre-law. While in school, during the summers, he traveled extensively, primarily in the United States and in southern Canada. However, one of his trips took him through the Panama Canal. He excelled in his studies, in athletics, and in leadership positions. He was made a member of the Telluride Association, a special foundation that gave scholarships to outstanding students. He received a B.A. degree cum laude in 1939 and was a Rhodes Scholar.

While in England attending Oxford University, Colling­wood worked for United Press in London. When the Rhodes committee discovered this dual career, they informed Colling­ wood that he must choose between scholarship and journalism. He chose scholarship, at least temporarily. The mounting tensions in Europe and the need to be a part of the war effort finally resulted in Collingwood's leaving Oxford in June 1940. In March 1941 he was hired by Edward R. Murrow, the head of CBS correspondents in Europe. His job was to broadcast news analyses, first from London and then from North Africa. His reports from North Africa made him famous in the United States, because his voice conveyed a sense of urgency. He was the first to report on the assassination of an Algerian leader and often scooped his colleagues.

     In 1943 Collingwood was awarded rhe George Foster Peabody Award for the outstanding reporting of news. The Peabody Award Committee selected him unanimously, remarking that he "with the tools of inference, and fact, has conveyed to us, through the screen of censorship, an understanding of the troublesome situation in North Africa." During his stay in North Africa, he broadcast for two-and-a-half minutes twice a day from Radio Algiers on the CBS network. In October 1943, after four years abroad, he returned to the United States and reported to government officials on the importance of the "invasion of ideas" as well as invasions by armies; he also emphasized the importance of British and American cooperation. He then made a two-month lecture tour of the United States.

     After the war, Collingwood began working in television news; during the 1950s he was the first United Nations correspondent for CBS News, the CBS White House correspondent, and the chief of the CBS London Bureau. In 1948 he covered the Republican National Convention for CBS radio and television. In 1959 he succeeded Murrow as host of Person to Person; for this show, he often left the studio and conducted interviews on location. He hosted a number of television specials, including "A Tour of the White House with Mrs. John F. Kennedy" in February 1962. From 1964 to 1975 he was the chief foreign correspondent for CBS News; in this capacity, Collingwood covered the war in Indochina and went to South Vietnam in 1965. In 1968 he was the first American network correspondent to be admitted to North Vietnam, and he appeared in broadcasts from Vietnam in late 1972 and early 1973.

     Collingwood's work included a variety of other assign­ments that suggest his qualities as an educated and well­ respected member of the CBS news team. He hosted Adventure (1953), a wildlife program. Following Charles Kuralt and Walter Cronkite in 1962-63, he anchored Eyewitness to History, which presented the cultural side of contemporary society. Other programs were Chronicle, a news program that alternated with CBS Reports from 1963 to 1964, and Portrait (1963), an interview show with guests as varied as Peter Sellers and General Curtis LeMay. At the same time that he was White House correspondent (1948-51), he hosted The Big Question, a live news discussion program. In the early 1950s, he appeared as a guest on Youth Takes a Stand, a discussion of current events with invited high school students and CBS correspondents, and he was a regular guest on The Morning Show, CBS's version of the National Broadcasting Company's (NBC) Today show.

     Collingwood retired from CBS News in 1982 but served as special correspondent until his death. His many awards include the Peabody, the National Headliners Club award, and the Overseas Press Club award. In 1975 he was appointed a commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Eliza­beth in recognition of his contribution to British-American friendship and understanding. He was also a chevalier of the French Legion of Honor.

     He died of cancer on 4 October 1985 in New York City. William Paley, the founder of CBS, said at the time of Collingwood's death that he "represented ... the highest standards of accuracy, honesty and integrity, leavened with humanity and sensitivity."