Ed Bradley has died at the age of 65. The award-winning journalist was best known for his 26 years as a correspondent on “60 Minutes.” He joined the program after notable stints reporting from Vietnam and as CBS’s first black correspondent at the White House. Just last month, Bradley aired the first interview with the accused members of the Duke lacrosse team. Bradley also had the only televised interview with Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. On Thursday, CBS News aired a tribute from chief national correspondent Byron Pitts.

Byron Pitts: “I knew Ed Bradley. We weren’t really friends. He was more like a father. And in this world, for people who look like me, father figures are a very big deal. I remember the first time I saw Ed on TV, in the water with those women and children. That story hit me the same way it probably hit a lot of African-American children in the 1970s: 'Wow, there's someone on TV who looks like me.’ And today there are thousands of journalists working hard because Ed Bradley showed us you can do this. Tonight and tomorrow night and for days thereafter, I will thank the good lord Ed Bradley lived, and that we all had a chance to learn from him. I promise, Ed, we did.”