A Tribute to Mike Wallace, the Restless Truth-Seeker

Good morning. On behalf of Mary and all of Mike's family, welcome to this tribute.

You know, this sight would have taken his breath away, seeing this place so full. He never took moments like this for granted.

And more than anything else, Mike would have wanted a count. To determine something very important to him: did more people show up at his memorial service than showed up at Hewitt's?

They were such competitors, such pals, and such rivals, always going at each other. And where would we be without that team: that feisty, contentious, mischievous team of Wallace and Hewitt.

It is hard to believe that Mike is gone.

His style, his stories, his questions, all so distinctively Mike. Nobody was ever that good. And his way became our identity as a broadcast: tough, tenacious, unflinching. It almost didn't matter what he was covering. People tuned in to see and hear what he was going to ask next.

He was a restless, driven man, pushed by his desire to be part of the action and to get to the truth. That's what he wanted most of all. One way or another, Mike Wallace was going to get to the truth.

His work earned him every honor imaginable, including something called the FDR Award for Freedom of Expression.

A few of us got up that day to speak about Mike, but I mostly remember this from Don:

"FDR said there is nothing to fear but fear itself, and that's because he never met Mike Wallace."

It is not unexpected when someone dies at 93 years old. But around the floor at 60 Minutes, and among the widely scattered population of 60 Minutes veterans, it was still hard to hear that Mike was gone. Mostly because he had such a powerful impact on so many of us individually.

When you worked with Mike, or you were around Mike, no matter what kind of contact you had with him, he was in your face all the time: taking a shot at you, flashing his big smile, telling a story, raising hell.

Around 60 Minutes, he was just like he was in an interview. He drove us all crazy. He made us all think on our feet. And he made us all laugh. He constantly reminded us that we were probably a few pounds overweight.

And if you were his producer, you knew, because he told you regularly, that your ass was on the line.

It was easier for those of us who weren't on his team. We watched it happen every day like a kind of spectator sport.

There have been so many Mike stories going around in the past few weeks, and one of my favorites, a vintage Mike story, is this one Josh Howard tells:

"I was sitting at my desk one day when Mike walked into my office and said, 'How about doing a piece about Willie Nelson?' At least, that's what I thought he had said. It wasn't the kind of story I usually produced, but I figured it would be a nice change from the more serious stuff. I said, 'Sure, but what got you interested in Willie Nelson?'

He looked at me like I was a fly in his soup, one of his favorite expressions. 'WILLIE NELSON? WHY THE F___ WOULD I WANT TO DO WILLIE NELSON?

WHAT I SAID WAS "WINNIE" AND "NELSON." YOU KNOW, MANDELA. POSSIBLY YOU HAVE HEARD OF THEM?'

He spun around and stalked out of my office, barking over his shoulder: 'I hadn't realized I had wandered into the toy department!' Capped off with one of his favorite lines: 'Good luck with your next career move.'"

We still talk about the four most dreaded words in the English language: Mike Wallace is here.

Which is exactly how an NYPD lieutenant felt one day when two angry livery cops handcuffed Mike and hauled him into the lieutenant's precinct, after Mike got into a fight with them for ticketing his driver, who was double-parked while Mike was picking up a piece of his favorite meatloaf to go.

The last thing the lieutenant wanted in his precinct was a steaming-mad Mike Wallace delivered in handcuffs. Mary was overseas, and Mike gave them my name and number, so the lieutenant called me. "Mr. Fager, I'm not sure how to tell you this, but we have one of your people here in custody. And here's the really bad news: it's Mike Wallace." Imagine that poor guy. He said, "I promise that I am doing everything in my power to complete the paperwork and get him out of here."

For Mike, it became one of the highlights of his later years.

And the next morning, he was on top of the world, for one reason.

(Shows Mike being hauled off by police at the Democratic Convention, 1968 in Chicago, but the headline is about the meatloaf arrest.) "Busted!": Mike Wallace's meatloaf incident

Later this morning, we'll show a tape of Morley asking him about the meatloaf arrest.

We're going to show you a lot of tape this morning. Some of it, like that, is material that never aired, except in our own edit rooms or at gatherings. Much of it is a collection of his work that we showed in our broadcast tribute to Mike two weeks ago. But even if you've seen it, you never tire of watching him in action.

We begin with a section from that broadcast, reported by Steve Kroft, about getting the most out of his subjects.

(KROFT TAPE)

Mike's so-called retirement was one of the more difficult times in his life. Morley asked him on tape, which you will also hear this morning, why not pack it in and reflect? Mike said, "Reflect, reflect about what?" When Mike Whitney retired from 60 Minutes, Mike and his good pal Warren Lustig made this going-away tape for Whitney about retiring.

(RETIREMENT TAPE)

Mary Wallace is an extraordinary woman who made him a better man and brought the terrific Yates family into his world.

I always felt a kinship with Mike because of my friendship with his beloved Pauline and Dick.

The last interview Mike did, talking about himself, was with his grandson, young Eames Yates Jr. Eames is a talented young reporter working at an affiliate in Florida. It was a joy for Mike to know he was pursuing a career in his footsteps.