Still looking up to Jim Cummins

John Reed, Springfield MO — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 18:32:45 GMT

I remember Jim Cummins leading Cedar Rapids Regis High School to the 1962 Iowa High School basketball championship. Cummins was a consesus all-state players and later had an outstanding Big Ten career at Northwestern Univeristy.

Still looking up to Jim Cummins

Micki Maynard — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 19:12:10 GMT

I had the great pleasure of getting to know Jim Cummins while we covered stories for our respective news organizations. What a fun guy and a great newsman. He was always willing to go wherever there was news, and his reports were solid. I always loved hearing him tell war stories and enjoyed the camaraderie he had with his crew. This is a big loss for NBC and all of us who considered him a friend. My thoughts to his family.

Still looking up to Jim Cummins

dale christensen — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 19:21:10 GMT

as a viewer , i remember seeing him over the years, he was forthright, and down to earth. and, after hearing of his passing, he touched a great many people
he will be miised, god bless him.....

Still looking up to Jim Cummins

Keith Shepard — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 20:14:31 GMT

So long Jim, and thanks for all the fish.

Still looking up to Jim Cummins

Michael Silverstein Grand Rapids MI — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 20:38:08 GMT

I had the pleasure of working with Jim at WOOD-TV/WOTV-TV in Grand Rapids MI in 1972. He was a great guy and wonderful to work with. Even took some money from him in a poker game at the Chief Photographers house. My condolences to the family.

Still looking up to Jim Cummins

Ronna Sherlock, Chicago, IL — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 20:40:50 GMT

Like Jim Cummins, my husband and I always worked to bring our viewers @ WGRZ-TV Buffalo, NY the personal side of "tragic splashy" stories. Like Jim Cummins, my Jim lost his battle with cancer and I want to send my thoughts and best wishes to Jim's wife and family. Hope the memories of how your classy Jim personalized the news brings you the comfort you deserve!

Still looking up to Jim Cummins

Mary Cummins Marr — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 21:13:03 GMT

I think Jim Cummins might have been a "cousin" of mine, I always enjoyed watching him on the news.

Still looking up to Jim Cummins

Jack Hawkins — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 21:42:45 GMT

Several years ago during the fires in San Diego, I remember when Jim, myself and a few other NBC folks were in Julian California, on top of the hill the city is perched on, surrounded on all sides by an on coming brush fire. I was thinking about the intense fire and smoke coming at us trying to figure out how I was going to get me and my satellite truck out of there. Jim was thinking about doing his Nightly News story in the next 11 minutes before we went live to air and that was it. That's the way he was. Focused on telling the story. I realized watching him, this is why we were all there. To tell the story! We did pack up and get out of there not long after our Nightly "hit" on to another story he had already been working on. This is the way it went for over a week. Jim, telling the story of the fire, the tragedies endoured and of the victims who had to pick up the pieces of their lives.
I have a picture of him on my office wall taken during that moment. He's dressed in a yellow fire suit, covered in dirt and soot with a big grin on his face! This is what he loved.

Still looking up to Jim Cummins

Michelle Craft — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 22:06:28 GMT

I was saddened to learn of Mr. Cummins death. I really connected to his style of news reporting.

On my birthday, February 1, 2003, I was waiting for the Space Shuttle to cross my home in Naples (to hear the sonic boom), when the Today Show broke the Columbia Shuttle disaster story, and Jim Cummins was the lead reporter covering from the area in Dallas from which I had moved some 20-months earlier. I recall how he calmly covered the tragic event.

His familiar voice will be missed.

Still looking up to Jim Cummins

Michael Eau Claire, Washington, D.C. — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 00:56:27 GMT

Jim and I go way back to the beginning at a small TV station in Mason City, Iowa. We both were just breaking into the business in the late 60's. What wonderful days they were. Our news department didn't even have a color camera for outside news coverage. We both moved on the bigger and better things. Some years later he wrote a letter to me after he'd seen a blurb in the NBC newsletter that I'd been hired at WRC radio in Washington,D.C. He said he couldn't believe he'd stumbled across my name and reminisced about the days we had to read some of most boring news anywhere, Mason City, not withstanding. 10 years. or so later, I saw him once again in Chicago when we were both covering a Kennedy speech. We parted ways and I never saw him again. But, I'll never forget those early days when we were both wet behind the ears, when we were young and hungry. Even though I didn't get to know Jim as well as I would have liked, I don't think he ever outgrew his hunger for news and his no-nonsense approach to it. The industry today needs more like Jim Cummins. We are suffer from his loss.

Still looking up to Jim Cummins

Mary Kearney Bergthold — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 02:13:30 GMT

I have missed seeing Jim on NBC, and now I'm saddened that I never will again. (I admired him so as the star of the triumphant Regis basketball team.)Seeing him always made me feel connected again to Connie, my best friend at Immaculate Conception School. I wish I could make this better for her. Mary Kearney

Still looking up to Jim Cummins

James II (Cummins) (No Relation) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 03:23:27 GMT

WoW Al - This one has me teary eyed. For reasons implied by my signature I have been doing my best to watch "Jim Cummins Reporting for NBC News" for decades. I had missed Jim Cummins on NBC so was wondering where he was, now I know, he is with all those who gave their Souls for the meek, the weak, innocent & poor, Jim Cummins is with Our Lord - May God Bless!!!!!

Still looking up to Jim Cummins

Harry Litwack — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 03:24:48 GMT

During the early 1990's I was producing a documentary film in New Mexico. Somewhere along the way I contacted Jim Cummins. Although I never met Jim in person over the course of a few yrs I would contact him occasionally. He was always professional, helpful, informative, sincere with good humor and
seemingly global perspective. Whenever, I'd see him on a national NBC broadcast it always gave me a sense of satisfaction that I could believe whatever he was telling us/me about had been filtered through his wizened perspective.

My sincere condolences to his family and their loss.

Still looking up to Jim Cummins

Larry Grossman, New York, NY — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 04:24:03 GMT

Jim was a true pro, a down-to-earth, straight arrow reporter without pretence or artifice. I always admired and could count on his work. I'm sad to learn of his death and I wish his family the very best.

Larry Grossman
former president, NBC News

Still looking up to Jim Cummins

Paul Stueber — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 12:51:00 GMT

Jim and I worked together in Grand Rapids 35+ years ago. He and I went out for a drink one night (a rare occasion: Jim and Connie already had at least two kids, as I remember, and he was a dedicated husband and Dad). On a cocktail napkin we started listing the stations we hoped to go to in our next moves.

If memory serves, Jim played basketball for Northwestern. His list? Next to WTMJ in Milwaukee--to WMAQ, the NBC O-and-O in Chicago--then to the network as a correspondent. Damn if it didn't happen exactly that way! I wish I still had that napkin!

How did he make it happen? By being that good, that dedicated, that much a pro, that much a straight shooter. The man had all the tools. Not many like Jim Cummins anymore.

Still looking up to Jim Cummins

Barb Weglarz — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 14:21:18 GMT

So very sorry to hear this sad news. My heartfelt condolences to all of his family including brother Bob and wife Marilyn.

Barb Weglarz, Ocala - babaweg@yahoo.com

Still looking up to Jim Cummins

Alex Taylor, New York, NY — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 15:02:28 GMT

I was another of Jim's colleagues at WOTV in Grand Rapids. Jim arrived there from Cedar Rapids a few weeks after I did from Terre Haute and we worked together for some four years. Rather than rivals, we became close friends -- as did almost everybody Jim encountered. He immediately established hiimself as the leader of the newsroom. Aside from his evident skills as a dogged reporter and natural on-air talent, he was open, direct, relaxed, and had a wonderful sense of humor. Even in those days, it wasn't easy getting along on $165 a week, but Jim, his wife Connie, and their growing family made the best of it without complaint. His ascension up the ladder to become an NBC correspondent seemed a foregone conclusion even then, and although we had limited contact in later years, he never seemed to lose his honest, hearty, and warm aproach to life. That he has died so young is a great saddness. My condolences to Connie and to the rest of his family.

Still looking up to Jim Cummins

Katy — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 15:09:49 GMT

Great story Al, A Nice tribute to Jim

Still looking up to Jim Cummins

dean reynolds, chicago, il. — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 16:26:12 GMT

Jim Cummins was one of the finest, most generous reporters in this country. He was an honorable competitor who knew instinctively where the line was. His widow and children should know that he was greatly admired as an artist and a man by those with whom he worked and especially those who tried -- and often failed -- to beat him.

Still looking up to Jim Cummins

Jerry Revish, WBNS-TV, Columbus, Ohio — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 19:48:27 GMT

During the Great Mississippi Flooding of 1993, my photographer and I were lugging our equipment down a hot, dusty road one afternoon after shooting a levee break near Alton, Illinois. Jim Cummins spotted us and told his photographer to stop. He'd just come from the same scene. "Hi, I'm Jim, want a ride? He dropped us off at our truck parked at a Red Cross station about a mile or so down the road. A random act of kindness extended to a pair of strangers bound by a common mission... gathering a news story. I'll never forget Jim Cummins or that day.

Still looking up to Jim Cummins

Rosiland Jordan, Washington, DC — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 20:48:15 GMT

Jim was a gentleman and always a gracious host whenever I was in Dallas. Too young, too young. My condolences to his family.

Still looking up to Jim Cummins

Tony Clark, Atlanta GA. — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 22:53:57 GMT

When you cover news stories, you often end up running into the same correspondents time and time again...especially if you are based in the same city as Jim and I were. He was a tough competitor because he was a really good reporter. He had a way with words that made you wish you could write as well. But above all, he was the kind of guy you look forward to running into on each assignment...a genuinely nice guy.

Still looking up to Jim Cummins

Stoney Burke, Olympia Fields, Illinois — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 05:37:11 GMT

I have not spoken with Dewey since we were teammates on Northwestern University’s basketball team. He was a junior when I was a freshman. Yet the two years that separated us, seemed much greater. He always projected an aura of self confidence but not cockiness. He had a great sense of humor yet you always felt that you could trust him and that he had something profound to say. Although it has been 40 years since I talked to him, I always felt that he was speaking personally to me when I heard him reporting on some news event. I just realized why Jim seem to be much older and wiser than the two years that separated us. Jim Cummins had the unique ability of speaking to you in such a way, that you felt that you had better pay attention or you might miss something that was really important. He had a rare skill that we will all miss very much.