Stephen F. Kroft (born August 22, 1945) is an American retired journalist, best known as a long-time correspondent for 60 Minutes. His investigative reporting garnered widespread acclaim, winning him three Peabody Awards and nine Emmy awards, including one for Lifetime Achievement in 2003. Biography Early life Kroft was born on August 22, 1945, in Kokomo, Indiana, the son of Margaret and Fred Kroft. Kroft attended Syracuse University, where he earned his bachelor's degree from the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in 1967. At Syracuse, he was a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity. He also worked at The Daily Orange and WAER radio station. After his graduation, he was drafted into the United States Army and served in the Vietnam War. He was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division in Cu Chi, where he was a reporter for the Armed Forces Network; he covered the division's participation in the invasion of Cambodia. Kroft won several Army journalism awards for his work and a Bronze Star for Meritorious Achievement. When the division was redeployed, he was reassigned to the military newspaper Stars and Stripes as a correspondent and photographer. Shortly after receiving an honorable discharge from the army in 1971, he began his broadcast journalism career as a reporter for WSYR-TV in Syracuse, New York. Kroft returned to academics in 1974, enrolling at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and earning his master's degree in 1975. Upon graduation Kroft moved to Florida, where he worked for two stations owned by the Washington Post Company. As an investigative reporter for WJXT in Jacksonville, his reports on local corruption led to several grand jury investigations and established his reputation. In 1977 he moved to WPLG-TV in Miami, where his work came to the attention of CBS News. CBS career Kroft joined CBS News in 1980 as a reporter in its Northeast bureau, based out of New York City. The next year, he was named a correspondent and the network soon moved him to its Southwest Bureau in Dallas, where he stayed until 1983. That year, Kroft returned to Florida after CBS reassigned him to its Miami bureau. He was soon making frequent visits to the Caribbean and Latin America, covering the civil war in El Salvador and the U.S. invasion of Grenada. In 1984, Kroft landed a job as a foreign correspondent at the CBS London bureau, where he traveled extensively