Long before growing accustomed to the glare of the international spotlight, Matt Lauer, co-anchor of The Today Show on NBC, spent his college days amid the tranquil hills and brick-lined streets of Athens, Ohio.
At The Today Show studio in Rockefeller Center, New York City, Lauer paused to recall his years at Ohio University, an institution struggling at the time to recover from the turbulence of the early 1970s.
I got the sense that when I was there it was a time of letting off steam. I arrived on campus in '75
a few years after the protests the Vietnam War and the Kent State incident Lauer said in a telephone interview. It seemed like people wanted to move away from the controversy. People were coming to Ohio University less for political reasons and more for the college experience.
A New York City native, when Lauer first visited OU at the suggestion of a high school guidance counselor, the distinct campus atmosphere persuaded him to enroll.
Upon joining the incoming freshman class, Lauer declared a major in communications and quickly began analyzing the necessary steps to achieve success in the profession.
Matt was very goal-oriented. I found that refreshing. He was emphatic about his needs and wants in the broadcast field and knew how to go about achieving them
said Arthur Savage, a retired OU professor of communications.
Although Lauer concedes that many of his favorite hangouts have long since vanished from Court Street, the places he called home in Athens - James Hall, Ewing House, and the apartment complex above Baron Men's Shop, 65 S. Court Street - remain fixtures of the city.
In the fall of his senior year, Lauer accepted an internship with WOWK-TV, an ABC affiliate in Huntington, W. Va. The experience, which he remembers as a virtual initiation by fire
would be the first in a landslide of events leading to his current success.
Lauer accepted a position with the station at the conclusion of the internship, leaving OU just four credits short of graduation.
I always intended to come back and take that extra course
Lauer said. But then one job led to another and one year led to 18 years.
After spending nearly two decades in the field, OU accepted an independent study project from Lauer in place of the missing credits. When he returned to Athens to deliver the university's 1997 commencement address, Lauer mounted the stage with the graduating class to receive his diploma.
Today, Lauer and NBC's lively morning broadcast are inseparably linked in the minds of millions of Americans, and OU President Robert Glidden fully recognizes Lauer's on-air dedication to the university.
There is no way we could afford to pay for advertising that brings us as much visibility as his comments about his Ohio University allegiance on The Today Show
Glidden wrote in an e-mail.
In turn, Lauer acknowledges the university's role in shaping his success and stands ready to serve his alma mater in the future.
The best way to describe my time at Ohio University is that I took full advantage of all the school had to offer academically
but I also had the full college experience
Lauer said. Ohio University got me on the road with a great deal of momentum.
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