Former CBS News Correspondent Eric Engberg, BJ ’63, a political and investigative reporter who also covered overseas conflicts for CBS News and won electronic journalism’s top honor for a report identifying a Vietnam veteran buried in the Tomb of the Unknowns, died March 27, at his home in Palmetto, Florida, where he retired after his CBS News career. Engberg appeared on the “CBS Evening News” for 26 years and is best remembered for his original series “Reality Check,” a new style of fact checking and watchdog reporting on the federal government that used modern graphics and stylish production. The series ran on the broadcast in the 1990s and helped popularize the phrase so common today among commentators and comedians. He and his team won a Columbia University DuPont Silver Baton for a “Reality Check” investigation that made big news in January 1998. Engberg’s reports built a case identifying the Vietnam unknown in Arlington National Cemetery as U.S.A.F. 1st Lt. Michael Blassie, a pilot shot down in the war. The investigation resulted in the exhumation of the body, a DNA positive identification and a reburial for family.

Updated: March 31, 2016