David Muir, class of 1995, received two honors from Ithaca College on Friday, March 13, in a ceremony held at the Paley Center for Media in New York City. He and ABC News colleague Diane Sawyer were recognized with the inaugural Jessica Savitch Award of Distinction for Excellence in Journalism, bestowed by the Roy H. Park School of Communications. President Tom Rochon also presented David with an honorary Doctor of Letters degree, conferred by the Ithaca College Board of Trustees upon recommendation of the Honorary Degree Committee and the Faculty Council.

After graduating from Ithaca College in 1995, David began his career as an anchor and reporter at WTVH television in his hometown of Syracuse. While there, he filed reports from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Israel, as well as from the Gaza Strip following the 1995 assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, the Prime Minister of Israel. The reports earned him top honors from the Radio-Television News Directors Association. The Associated Press honored him for Best Enterprise Reporting and Best Television Interview. The Syracuse Press Club recognized him as anchor of the "Best Local Newscast" and the readers of the Syracuse New Times voted him one of Syracuse’s “Best Local News Anchors”. After serving five years with the station, he then joined WCVB television in Boston, Massachusetts, where his accolades included the regional Edward R. Murrow Award for investigative reporting and the National Headliner Award and Associated Press honors for his work tracing the path of the hijackers involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks. 

Since joining ABC News in 2003, David has been a lead correspondent on several major breaking news stories. In August 2006, he reported from the Israel-Lebanon border covering the Israeli war with Hezbollah. A year earlier, he was inside the Superdome as Hurricane Katrina hit, and he stayed in New Orleans to cover the unfolding crisis. His reports for “World News Tonight,” “Primetime” and “20/20” revealed the deteriorating conditions inside the Convention Center and Charity Hospital. He filed reports from Texas during Hurricane Rita and from Florida during Hurricane Wilma. He was on the scene during the catastrophic wildfires in the Midwest and Plains states as well the mudslides in La Conchita, California. In addition, he reported from West Virginia on the letters left behind by the coal miners during the Sago Coal Mine tragedy for “Primetime.” He has contributed to several in-depth series on “World News,” including “America: Over a Barrel,” “Cancer: Beating the Odds,” and the broadcast’s ongoing look at identity theft.

David shares a News & Documentary Emmy Award with the ABC News staff for their coverage of Obama's inauguration. He is a 2009 recipient of a Writers Guild Award, and was profiled in the former Men’s Vogue magazine as well as People magazine. In September 2010, he completed “Going Home”, the first in a series of reports from network reporters’ hometowns. His report offered a sobering but ultimately optimistic look at how Central New York is faring during the economic downturn.

“You don’t need a camera or a microphone to have a voice. You already have a voice, and my role is simply to urge you to use it” are the words that Muir left with the Ithaca College graduating class of 2011 when he served as Commencement speaker.  Muir encourages others to use their voice, while at the same time he has used his own to help us better understand the world. Muir’s nomination was based on the distinctive voice he brings and the new sense of possibilities he brings to his role as anchor on ABC World News Tonight with David Muir where he continuously gives a voice to the voiceless.

To view a livestream of the Jessica Savitch Awards and the conferral of the honorary degree please click here. The ceremony begins at the 41 minute mark. Photos from the event can be found on the Roy H. Park School of Communications’s Facebook page here.