Radio Icon Norman Corwin Dies At 101

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Norman Corwin, the legendary writer, director, and producer of original radio plays for CBS during the golden age of radio in the 1930s and '40s when he was referred to as the "poet of the airwaves," died Tuesday at the age of 101.

He died peacefully of natural causes at 5 p.m., the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism announced.

Corwin's radio work included writing "On a Note of Triumph," broadcast in 1945 to mark the allied victory over Nazi Germany.

He was asked by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt for a program to celebrate the Bill of Rights and penned "We Hold These Truths."

Corwin received a best adapted screenplay Academy Award nomination for a 1956 biography of artist Vincent van Gogh.

He also wrote and directed stage plays, television dramas, three cantatas, one of which was performed at the
United Nations, and the libretto of a one-act opera produced by New York's Metropolitan Opera.

Corwin joined the USC journalism school faculty in 1979 and remained a writer-in-residence at the time of his death.

Corwin is survived by two children, daughter, Diane and son, Anthony.