Thomas Trail Fenton ’52
Thomas Trail Fenton ’52 died in Novato, California, on July 16, 2024. He was born on April 8, 1930, and graduated from Dartmouth with an A.B. in English. He was a member of Delta Upsilon and an officer in the U.S. Navy from 1952 to 1961, serving in European waters. Tom was a journalist, first with The Baltimore Sun and then with CBS News from 1970 until his retirement in 2004. Tom joined CBS as a Rome-based correspondent and conducted the first interview with hostages taken that year by the Palestine Liberation Organization. He later reported on the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus. When Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew the shah of Iran in 1979, Tom was the first Western journalist to interview Iran’s new leader. In 1991 he was in Moscow to cover the fall of the Soviet Union. During the 1990s Tom reported on the wars in the Balkans and violence in the Middle East and Africa. During his CBS career he served as the network’s bureau chief in Rome, Tel Aviv, Paris, London, and Moscow. After retiring Tom wrote the book Bad News: The Decline of Reporting, the Business of News, and the Danger to Us All, published in 2005. He was predeceased by brothers Matthew ’49 and Philip ’53. He is survived by his wife, Simone, and children Ariane and Thomas.
