NPR ‘Founding Mother’ Linda Wertheimer retires after 53 years with bittersweet goodbye note

Brian Niemietz, New York Daily News
·2 min read
1

National Public Radio stalwart Linda Wertheimer ended 53 years at the storied outlet with a bittersweet note to her colleagues shared online the day after the 80-year-old co-host of “All Things Considered” announced her retirement on Tuesday.

“I was incredibly lucky to arrive at NPR when I did, which was at the very beginning, and that’s what I want to talk about today,” her letter begins. “NPR was not yet on the air, ‘All Things Considered’ was barely an idea and nowhere near a program.”

She goes on to discuss the many changes she experienced and responsibilities she held during her time at NPR, ending her note by saying she’s “had a great ride over more than 50 years — and now that ride is over.”

One of Wertheimer’s many achievements at NPR was launching “All Things Considered” in 1971, turning it into a radio staple as its director. In 1989, she became a host of the afternoon news show and stayed in that position for 12 more years.

“At our first staff meeting there were no chairs (or tables) but there were eager people with lots of plans sitting on the floor and I was one of them,” Wertheimer recalled in her farewell address. “That day we named ‘All Things Considered.'”

More than 40 years after launching the series, Wertheimer found herself anchoring coverage for the program after the Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

She also served NPR in a variety of other roles, including her final stop as senior national correspondent.

In 1976, she became the first woman to anchor network coverage of both a presidential nomination convention and an election night, according to the network. She went on to anchor nine more presidential nominating conventions and 11 election nights.

Wertheimer also recalled beginning her career as a director for NPR’s first program, “ATC,” which she described as “the only job I’ve had at NPR that I disliked.”

Her colleagues at ATC “somehow could not cram their news reporting into the number of minutes that were assigned,” which called for Wertheimer to “ruthlessly” edit her reporters’ work to make it work on the air.

But her goodbye note also heaps praise on past colleagues, including the “late brilliant Cokie Roberts” who died in 2019. She too was a “founding mother” of NPR.