Wes Vernon, a pioneer in American radio news and a previous National Press Club member, passed away on Sunday, Aug. 8, 2021, due to complications from Alzheimer’s Disease. He was 89 years old.
Born Weston Vernon III on August 23, 1931, in New York City, the broadcaster, reporter, writer and commentator spent nearly five decades on the air in Washington, D.C., Utah, Wyoming and Montana.
The airwaves first called him at age 18, when he earned a job as a disc jockey and after a year of studying journalism at Utah State University. He considered his career launched. While working for the small station (KBUH) in Brigham City, Utah, he met his wife, Alida Steinvoort. Her high school class toured the station one afternoon, and she called that evening to request a song, which led to a date. They were married for nearly 70 years.
He is survived by his wife, Alida, and their children: Rosanne (Charles) Frank of Silver Spring, Maryland & Myrtle Beach, SC; Weston Vernon IV, of Olney Maryland; Diane (Andrew) Powell of San Francisco, California; and John Randall (Susie) Vernon, of Lake Wylie, South Carolina, plus seven grandchildren and three great-grandsons. Mr. Vernon was preceded in death by his beloved brother, Robert G. Vernon.
Services will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, August 21, at the Logan City Cemetery in Logan, Utah. Donations may be made in Mr. Vernon’s memory to the Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation.
Earlier this year, Mr. Vernon’s family established the Wes Vernon Broadcast Scholarship through the National Press Club Journalism Institute to both honor his prolific career and to remove educational barriers for students from backgrounds underrepresented in broadcast journalism.
“It’s so meaningful for my family to preserve his legacy in this way,” said Powell, Mr. Vernon’s daughter, earlier this year. “We hope it will provide aid to students with his passion for broadcast news.”
Mr. Vernon worked as a DJ at several radio stations in the west before segueing into the developing field of local news reporting at KBMY in Billings, Montana. In 1963, he became a news director and political specialist for KSL Radio-TV in Salt Lake City.
Five years later, Mr. Vernon was chosen by KSL’s parent company, Bonneville International, to become the chief of its new Washington D.C. News Bureau. He relished providing news coverage from Capitol Hill for several Bonneville-owned radio stations around the country.
Mr. Vernon’s passion for the news and politics further ignited in 1972, when he joined the CBS Radio Stations News Service as a Washington correspondent. In 1975, he added duties as host for the CBS program Crosstalk. He spent the next 25 years reporting on various national and regional news stories as well as Democratic and Republican conventions for seven CBS-owned and -operated stations in seven major markets.
After retiring from CBS in 1997, Mr. Vernon was a freelance writer/columnist for a number of publications and websites, including NewsMax and Renew America. He provided numerous book reviews for The Washington Times, specializing in political nonfiction. Mr. Vernon also served as a guest host for the Radio America network.
He had a deep passion for rail travel, stemming from childhood memories of watching steam trains pass through Logan, Utah, during summer visits to his grandparents. He was an ardent advocate for mass transit throughout his life. For many years, he wrote a monthly column for Railfan & Railroad Magazine, as well as articles for other rail publications.
Mr. Vernon was a member of the Screen Actors Guild and the National Press Club. He was a past president and board member of the Chesapeake Railway Association. His other civic affiliations included the Winding Orchard Citizens Association in Maryland. He was a member of the American Legion and was proud to be a past commander of Yellowstone Post 4 in Montana.
Over the years, Mr. Vernon received a number of formal honors. One of his most prized awards was the 2014 “Alumnus of the Year” honor from The Browning School in New York City. He also received the Reed Irvine Award in 2010 from Accuracy in Media in Washington. The award recognized Mr. Vernon’s “great contribution to freedom’s cause, and his promotion of accurate, balanced and honest news reporting.”