Remembering Phil Jones, Legendary CBS Correspondent and Longtime Press Club Member and Mentor

Our longtime Press Club colleague Phil Jones passed away recently at 87. He was a legendary figure at CBS News and a mentor to many of us. He worked at CBS for nearly 40 years, first as a Vietnam War correspondent and later as one of the network’s top political reporters. 

 A native of Fairmount, Indiana, Phil graduated from Indiana University. He worked at WCCO-TV, the powerhouse CBS affiliate in Minneapolis/St. Paul, before joining the network’s vaunted Washington Bureau. 

Phil worked for the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite and later the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather. He was a White House Correspondent during the administration of President Gerald Ford. He later covered multiple Presidential campaigns and spent years as the lead CBS Correspondent covering the US Senate. 

Along the way he contributed to every major CBS News broadcast. In the 1990s he took a hiatus from the Evening News and spent a few years as a correspondent for the news magazine show, 48 Hours. In 1996, he returned to the Evening News and that’s where he stayed until his retirement in 2001.

Phil was the kind of reporter the rest of us strived to be. He was a tenacious journalist who was curious, accurate, and fair. He saw his job as a mission to hold the powerful accountable. Phil could be curmudgeonly, but it was largely a facade. For those of us lucky enough to get close, we found a compassionate and loyal friend. 

In 2006, Phil and his wife, Pat, moved to Naples. Pat died in 2021, and after a series of health problems, Phil relocated to Bentley Village.  

His daughter, Pam, and his son, Paul, are planning a celebration of Phil’s life for some time in September. We will pass along further information as it becomes available.

Editor’s Note: CBS News broadcast a tribute to Phil after learning of his death, which you can view here. Also, his alma mater Indiana University published an in-depth bio of Phil in 2002 when he was inducted into the institution’s Journalism Hall of Fame. Click here to read the bio.