MOUNT VERNON – One of Mount Vernon High School’s most famous graduates has passed away. Tom Mintier was a member of the MVHS Class of 1965 and went on to an illustrious career with the Cable News Network, CNN.
According to sources, Mintier died at age 68 in Thailand on Sunday, though no cause of death was released.
Former Mount Vernon resident Rich Cochran remembers Mintier. “I was only 25 or 26 at the time and owned the Holiday Restaurant (later Jodies.) The local high school crowd would pack the place at 3 p.m. after school. Tom was a regular, always with a camera or two hanging around his neck” said Cochran.
According to Adweek.com, Mintier was a CNN national correspondent based in Atlanta. He was one of the network’s primary reporters during the Gulf War, reporting daily from Baghdad during the invasion of Kuwait. Mintier also covered the ground war from Saudi Arabia and later anchored a CNN Special Report from the burning oil fields of Kuwait.
Tom Mintier – file photo from moviescreenshots.blogspot.com
Mintier reported live from the scene of several major, historic breaking news events, including the 1989 student rebellion in Tiananmen Square; the 1989 opening of the Berlin Wall; the U.S. invasion and capture of Manuel Noriega in Panama; and the 1989 summit between Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and Cuban President Fidel Castro in Cuba. Mintier also has covered more than 25 space missions for CNN, and was the only network television journalist in the world reporting live as the 1986 space shuttle Challenger exploded, killing the seven astronauts aboard.
Mintier received special prestigious awards for his work, including Emmys for coverage of the 1996 Olympic Park bombing and the 1989 Tiananmen Square student uprising.
