Former Dartmouth Board of Trustees chairman Thomas Braden '40 died on Friday at his home in Denver, Colo. Braden, a journalist who founded and co-hosted the CNN show "Crossfire," was 92.
Braden, who served on the Board from 1964 to 1975, voted in favor of coeducation, according to his daughter, Susan Braden '77, one of the first female students to attend the College. He was also a chief proponent of the Great Issues course first proposed by then-College President John Sloan Dickey.
"Dartmouth was very important to Dad," Susan Braden said. "He came from Dubuque, Iowa. He didn't have a high school degree and Dartmouth took him in."
Braden was born in 1917. His father worked in a tie store and a bank, and his mother wrote for American Mercury magazine. Braden dropped out of high school during the Great Depression and worked briefly for a printing press in New York City.
Braden realized that he wanted to attend college and went to a public library to search for schools that did not require a high school diploma for admission, his daughter said. He graduated from the College in 1940 as an English major.
"He actually wasn't a very good student, but he wrote very easily," Susan Braden said. "There was actually a professor in English who told him that, 'You can become a really great writer if you actually worked at it, but you spend all your time having fun.'"
During his time at the College, Braden was interested in journalism and served as editor-in-chief of The Dartmouth.
After graduation, Braden volunteered to serve in the British army in 1941 because the United States had not yet entered World War II. After fighting in Africa for Britain, Braden joined the United States' war effort, serving in the Office of Strategic Services, which would later become the CIA, Susan Braden said.
After the end of the war, Braden returned to Dartmouth to teach English, where he met Robert Frost, who also taught at the College during that time. Frost encouraged Braden to continue to pursue journalism.
Braden purchased the now-defunct Blade-Tribune of Oceanside, Calif., from Nelson Rockefeller '30 in 1954. Rockefeller personally loaned Braden the $100,000 he needed for the purchase, a loan Braden repaid when he sold the newspaper in 1968 for $1 million. In the 1960s, Braden also served as president of the California Board of Education and unsuccessfully ran for state lieutenant governor in 1966.
After selling his newspaper, Braden returned to the Washington, D.C., area and became a syndicated journalist for the Los Angeles Times.
Braden replaced Frank Mankiewicz, a former campaign aide to Robert F. Kennedy, on the syndicated radio show "Confrontation" in 1977 as "the voice from the left." The role pitted him against former President Richard Nixon adviser Pat Buchanan.
Braden relaunched the show in 1982 as "Crossfire" on CNN, changing it to a television format. He became well known for his spirited exchanges with Buchanan and other conservative pundits, which continued until he left in 1989. "Crossfire" was on the air until 2005 and influenced later shows that copied the format.
His 1975 book, "Eight is Enough," evolved from newspaper columns Braden wrote about his eight children. The book was adapted into a popular television series which ran on ABC from 1977 to 1981.
Braden is survived by 12 grandchildren, including Jessica Zarker '12, Susan Braden's daughter.
"When I told him I was coming to Dartmouth, my grandfather, he was so happy, he wrote me like a $500 check, and it's funny because whenever it's my mother's birthday, he gives her like $2," Zarker said, adding later that every time Dartmouth was brought up in conversation, Braden "would start belting out the Alma Mater and fight songs."
