Robert Bjarne Camfiord, Directed CBS Programs, 77, Washington Post
DGH
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/20/AR2008092002037.html
Robert Bjarne Camfiord, 77; Directed CBS Programs
Robert Bjarne "Barney" Camfiord, 77, a former director of CBS news
programs, died August 5 [2008] at Inova Fairfax [Virginia] Hospital.
He had emphysema.
Mr. Camfiord began his career with CBS-TV in 1955 in New York [New
York] as a film editor. In 1963, he came to the CBS Washington bureau,
where he directed "Face the Nation" and the "CBS Morning News." He
also directed Washington [DC] segments of the "CBS Evening News."
Among the major news events that Mr. Camfiord covered as a director
were the Cuban missile crisis; the 1963 March on Washington, which
featured Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech; the
funerals of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy; the first Apollo
moon landing in 1969; and the Watergate hearings.
He left CBS in 1987 when the company's chief executive, Laurence
Tisch, ordered drastic budget cuts and layoffs.
"People who have nothing to do with the broadcasting industry and
don't know what they're doing have taken over," Mr. Camfiord told The
Washington Post at the time. "They are destroying the best news
organization that broadcasting has ever seen or will ever see."
Soon afterward, Mr. Camfiord returned to CBS as a contract employee
and continued to work as a director of weekend news broadcasts and
"America Tonight" until 2005.
Mr. Camfiord was a native of Brooklyn, New York, and served in the Air
Force in the 1950s. He attended City College of New York and began his
broadcast career in Tennessee before joining CBS.
He lived in Clifton for many years and was a knowledgeable connoisseur
of jazz and film. He collected books and model warplanes and also
enjoyed history and camping.
His marriage to Carolyn Pettefer Camfiord ended in divorce.
Survivors include his wife of 40 years, Tiana Gillespie Camfiord of
Clifton; two children from his first marriage, Elizabeth Camfiord of
Los Angeles and Miles Camfiord of Burlingame, California; two children
from his second marriage, Jason Camfiord of Clifton and Nathan
Camfiord of Fairfax County [Virginia]; and four grandchildren.
--
Matt Schudel