Word: avuncularity
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...crowd erupted with cheers of "Reagan!" The candidate cocked his head, grinned and said: "My mother always told me that I should never say that. But this is the last night of a long campaign, and I thought just once I could say it." It was Reagan at his avuncular best...
DIED. Milburn Stone, 75, veteran character actor who as the vinegary yet avuncular Doc Adams in TV's popular Gunsmoke series played friend and foil to James Arness's Matt Dillon and Amanda Blake's Miss Kitty throughout the show's 20-year (1955-75) run; of a heart attack; in La Jolla, Calif. Stone became so strongly identified with the role, for which he won an Emmy, that he once quipped, "To everyone except my family I'm Doc. Getting so I have to restrain myself from making house calls...
...choosing Rather, CBS is gambling that the time has come for an electrifying anchorman rather than an avuncular one, a younger, more dynamic personality to replace an old familiar face. But also, the network really did not dare let him go; Rather is the one man in television who, working for a competitor, could conceivably demolish the house that Cronkite built. Ambitious and energetic, Rather is blessed with commanding presence and down-home charm. He has also turned out to be a man of abiding loyalties: "I know so many people at CBS, and I just could not bring myself...
...after 18 years as TV's avuncular anchor, Walter Cronkite was talking retirement-even though his current $600,000-a-year contract with CBS Evening News has another year to run and his commitment to the network as nonretirable talent is unchanged. Some telegossips said Walter wanted out; others suggested he was helping CBS retain Probable Successor Dan Rather, who was being heavily wooed by ABC. Either way Cronkite could certainly leave with honorable profit in other fields...
John Paul combined the talents of showbiz superstar and avuncular, if stern, pastor. Despite his unyielding stands in matters of dogma and discipline, he proved wildly popular in human terms. Everywhere, he uncompromisingly addressed the key issues troubling the Roman Catholic Church. In Puebla, Mexico, he told Latin American bishops that while the church must preach social justice, it can never accommodate theologies that are inspired as much by Marx as by Jesus. In his homeland of Poland, during the first visit by a Pope to a Communist-ruled land, he encouraged East bloc Christians to persist in their struggle...