Former Students Remember Longtime Broadcast Journalist And Educator Henry Lippold
Henry Lippold taught broadcast journalism at the University of Illinois and anchored the evening news on WILL-TV in the 1960s. Illinois Public Media
Former WILL-TV news director and anchorman Henry Lippold has died. He was 89 years old. Lippold oversaw student reporters and anchored newscasts at WILL-TV during the 1960s, covering major events like the assassination of President Kennedy and the Vietnam War.
Lippold began teaching at the University of Illinois in Urbana in 1959, the beginning of what would be a decades-long academic career.
“He was a man of constant energy and displayed that at all times,” said Ken Keller, who worked as a graduate student assistant to Lippold.
Keller went on to become a broadcast journalist, working at stations in Kansas City, St. Louis and Los Angeles before embarking on a journalism teaching career of his own at Southern Illinois University. He credits Lippold for helping him to land his first job at WCIA-TV in Champaign, and remembers him as a "fabulous teacher."
"He would jump up on a desk with the camera and show us you know sometimes you have to get high, and then he would dive down onto the floor with the camera at ground level to show that you have to shoot from ground levels sometimes, and he’d run around the classroom," Keller said.
Henry Lippold, during his time as News Supervisor at WILL-TV from 1959-1972
Former WILL station manager Dan Simeone also recalled Lippold’s enthusiasm for teaching and the news. He remembers tales of Lippold on deadline, racing from the journalism building where the national and international wire stories arrived to the TV studio a mile away in time for the evening broadcast.
“That was just some indication of how devoted he was to the station, the newscast, and the news in those days,” Simeone said.
Lippold joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in 1972, where he built the university’s broadcast journalism program. He retired in 2001, and was inducted the following year into the Wisconsin Broadcaster’s Hall of Fame.
After his retirement, he remained active, hosting the program "From the Newsroom" for Chippewa Valley Community Television.
Lippold passed away Oct. 20 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.