May 22, 2006

L.A. Newsman Jere Witter Dies


Longtime Writer-Reporter Was 79

Fountain Valley, CA – Jere Witter, a television news writer and reporter who worked in southern California for many years, died Saturday, May 11, at his home in Fountain Valley. Witter, 79, passed away due to complications from cancer.

A graduate of Beverly Hills High School and University of California, Berkeley’s school of journalism, Witter got his start as a copy boy for the San Francisco Chronicle.

He began his television career in 1955 as a news writer at San Francisco station KPIX-TV, and by the time he left he had become the news director. In 1962 he moved to Los Angeles, where he was hired at KNXT-TV Channel 2 (now KCBS-TV) as a writer for the hour-long broadcast The Big News, hosted by Jerry Dunphy.

Witter also made appearances on camera in the show’s “Observer at Large” segments and as host of the Sunday-morning program Viewpoint.

Witter segued from The Big News to another KNXT program, Ralph Story’s Los Angeles, for which he was sole writer. He later worked as a writer and reporter for the Orange County-based public television station KOCE-TV. In addition, he wrote for KHJ-TV and KNBC-TV.

In later years, Witter was a field investigator for the Orange County Legal Aid Society.

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