A piece of America died with the passing of Walter Cronkite. I’m not old enough to remember first-hand what it was like to start my evening with his broadcasts. Or to be comforted by his voice in times of national turmoil. But I am old enough to know how important he was to our nation and it’s history. That he was a national treasure, and one of the last great news anchors.

When you look around there really aren’t any newsmen that carry the same importance as Walter Cronkite. Partly because of the “24-hour news cycle” and partly because I just don’t think they exist. The closest we have may be Anderson Cooper and Brian Williams, now that Tim Russert is gone. But none of them are as watched, trusted nor carry the same weight as Cronkite did.

“A news anchor isn’t supposed to cry,” he said once when recapping his coverage of the death of President John F. Kennedy. But we should all shed a tear in mourning the death of a great American man.

A finer newsman we may never know.