For 14 years, millions of Americans ended the evening news with the same sign-off: “Good night, Chet.” “Good night, David.” The Chet in that exchange was Chester Robert Huntley, born in 1911 in Cardwell, a tiny town in Jefferson County.
Huntley grew up on a homestead near Saco in northeastern Montana, where his father worked as a railroad telegrapher. He attended Montana State College in Bozeman and later finished his degree at the University of Washington. He got his start in radio in Seattle in the 1930s, then worked for CBS and ABC in Los Angeles, where he built a reputation as a careful, independent reporter. He took on Sen. Joseph McCarthy on air at a time when that was risky.
The Huntley-Brinkley Report
In 1956 NBC paired Huntley, in New York, with David Brinkley, in Washington, to anchor its coverage of the political conventions. The combination worked so well that the network built its evening newscast around them. The Huntley-Brinkley Report ran from 1956 to 1970 and was, for much of that time, the most-watched news program in the country.
Huntley’s style was steady and plainspoken, and his voice carried a little of the prairie with it.
Coming home
He retired from NBC in 1970 and moved back to Montana to lead the development of Big Sky Resort in the Gallatin Canyon. The resort opened in December 1973. Huntley died of lung cancer in March 1974, at his home in Bozeman.
The Chet Huntley Lodge at Big Sky and a scenic highway marker near his birthplace keep his name in Montana.