Ernest Leiser, 81; Director of CBS News, Longtime Producer

Ernest Leiser, 81, a CBS News producer who hired the network’s current anchor, Dan Rather, died Tuesday of an apparent heart attack in South Nyack, N.Y.

A native of Philadelphia, Leiser graduated from the University of Chicago and served in the Army during World War II as a correspondent for Stars & Stripes. He worked mostly in Europe, where he was jailed briefly by Communists while covering the revolt in Hungary in 1956.

Leiser was named director of CBS News in 1964, where he hired Rather and served as executive producer of the “CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.” Leiser spent 1972 to 1975 as an executive producer for ABC News, then returned to CBS to head coverage of political conventions and elections until his retirement in 1985.

Rather called Leiser “a classy gentleman, a thorough scholar, an integrity-filled journalist and a visionary leader of other journalists and said Leiser “repeatedly proved he was one of the bravest and best American journalists in history.”