Charles Bierbauer, a seasoned CNN correspondent who reported on the White House, Pentagon, and Supreme Court for 20 years, passed away on Friday, August 29, 2025, at the age of 83. His death occurred at his residence in Spruce Pine, North Carolina.
Bierbauer died at his retirement home, with his family’s obituary noting “his generous heart gave out after a good, long life.” The University of South Carolina spokesman, Jeff Stensland, stated that no specific cause of death was given.
Originally from Pennsylvania, Bierbauer joined CNN in 1981, a year after the network was founded. He began his tenure as the Pentagon’s defense correspondent before becoming CNN’s senior White House correspondent for nine years, covering Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. His reporting extended to the Supreme Court, presidential campaigns from 1984 to 2000, and major international summits.
He held the position of president of the White House Correspondents’ Association from 1991 to 1992 and traveled with presidents to all 50 states and over 30 countries during his career. Bierbauer also anchored CNN’s weekly program “Newsmaker Saturday” for ten years, where he interviewed key news figures.
Bierbauer’s journalism career started in Allentown, Pennsylvania, working as a weekend radio reporter for WKAP. He then joined The Associated Press in Pittsburgh. Following a year with the AP, he worked for various other outlets, receiving an Overseas Press Club Award in 1973 for his Yom Kippur War reporting.
Before joining CNN, Bierbauer spent four years with ABC News, serving as Moscow bureau chief and correspondent starting in 1978, and later as bureau chief in Bonn, Germany. In his earlier career, he worked in London, Bonn, and Vienna for Westinghouse Broadcasting. His extensive international coverage included reporting on every US-Soviet summit since 1975, starting with President Gerald Ford and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev’s meeting, through the 1992 summit between Presidents George H.W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin.
Bierbauer’s family recounts that he was briefly detained in Moscow’s Red Square while documenting an anti-Soviet protest. During Muhammad Ali’s 1978 visit to the Soviet Union, the Soviet press criticized his challenging questions.
He earned an Emmy Award for his coverage of the 1996 Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta. His expertise in Eastern Europe during the Cold War era was instrumental in his reporting on the period’s geopolitical complexities.
After retiring from CNN in 2001, Bierbauer transitioned to academia and became the inaugural dean of the University of South Carolina’s College of Mass Communications and Information Studies in 2002. He oversaw the merger of the mass communications and library science programs and served in this capacity until 2017.
During his academic leadership, Bierbauer initiated Cocky’s Reading Express, a childhood literacy program, and spearheaded a significant fundraising and renovation project that relocated the journalism school to a modern facility on the university’s historic Horseshoe campus.
In addition to his academic duties, Bierbauer continued his broadcasting interests by hosting a weekly current events program and moderating debates among political candidates in collaboration with SCETV. Tom Reichert, his successor as communications dean, praised Bierbauer’s efforts in fundraising and his support for students who went on to win Pulitzer Prizes.
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, who was mentored by Bierbauer, described him as an invaluable guide and mentor during assignments at the Pentagon and White House, and a good friend and colleague. Blitzer noted that his loss would be deeply felt.
Jay Bender, a former attorney for the South Carolina Press Association and retired professor who worked with Bierbauer, acknowledged his contributions as a broadcaster and educator. Bender highlighted Bierbauer’s impact on the USC Journalism School, particularly through modernization efforts.
Bierbauer graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 1966 with a bachelor’s degree in Russian and both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism. The university honored him as a distinguished alumnus and alumni fellow.
He was married to Susanne Schafer, a longtime Associated Press military affairs reporter, in April 1983. Bierbauer is survived by Schafer, four children, seven grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
