Richard C. Hottelet | One of 'Murrow's Boys,' 97

Richard C. Hottelet, 97, a longtime U.N. correspondent for CBS News who provided eyewitness accounts of World War II battles and was among the last surviving reporters mentored by the celebrated newsman Edward R. Murrow, died Wednesday in Wilton, Conn. No cause of death was given.

Mr. Hottelet was part of the team of London-based war correspondents known as "Murrow's Boys" for their association with the European news director of CBS News. Considered one of the finest news teams ever assembled, the group included Eric Sevareid and William L. Shirer.

The American-born Mr. Hottelet was studying in Berlin, in the native land of his immigrant parents, when he joined the United Press wire service to earn pocket money, but his resourcefulness and the deepening world crisis transformed him into one of the more prominent journalists reporting from Germany.

He was a consistent irritant to the Nazis and courted arrest several times while reporting on the deportation of Jews.

With his Gestapo file growing, he was arrested in 1941 on espionage charges and spent four months in confinement while being interrogated harshly. He and another American were freed in exchange for two Germans detained as spies in the United States.

Mr. Hottelet was hired by Murrow in time to cover the Normandy invasion of June 6, 1944.

He served as CBS's U.N. correspondent from 1960 until retiring from the network in 1985. Since 2006, he had been a lecturer at George Washington University. - Washington Post