Bob Dotson has a unique approach to the news. For more than three decades he has searched the neglected corners of our country, seeking the extraordinary in ordinary lives. 

"I look for people who don't have titles in front of their names," says Dotson. "People of all ages -- in all walks of life -- with good ideas. I cover them as if they were the Governor.  Dig for what's significant. Don't settle for clichés.  A lot of seemingly ordinary people, standing in the shadows of well-known people -- have terrific ideas."

His special reports, "American Story with Bob Dotson," air on the Today Show and the NBC Nightly News and have won more than a hundred prestigious broadcast journalism honors.

• Four National Emmy Awards (and eight nominations) for writing and reporting
• Grand Prizes from the Alfred I. Dupont-Columbia University Awards and the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation for Distinguished Journalism.  
• The Society of Professional Journalists cited Dotson for “Best Network Feature Reporting." 
• The Radio and Television News Directors Association honored him for "Best Network News Writing.”  
• The National Press Photographers Association gave Dotson its top honor:  the Sprague Memorial Prize

Bob Dotson's stories have taken him to every state, many times, and around the world.  He is an internationally acclaimed documentary producer. His film, El Capitan's Courageous Climbers (NBC Productions,) was the winner of seven International Film and Video Festivals and was awarded documentary's highest honor, the CINE Grand Prize.

He is also the writer and host of “Bob Dotson's America,” a series of half-hour programs on the Travel Channel and the author of two books, one for aspiring journalists, "Make it Memorable," (Bonus Books, 2000); the other a memoir, "In Pursuit of the American Dream," (Athenaeum, NY, 1985.) His literary work won the George Washington Honor Medal for excellence.

Over the years Dotson saved more than six thousand original story tapes, whenever his bosses, looking to save space, tossed them out. He preserved not just the stories themselves, but every field cassette. For three decades, they were maintained at his own expense in air-conditioned rooms -- first in his basement then, as the collection grew, in warehouses.

Dotson donated that archive to the Oklahoma Historical Society. A lifetime of stories is now available to scholars at the Society's new 64 million dollar museum next to the State Capitol.

Dotson began his broadcasting career at the NBC station in Oklahoma City, WKY-TV (now KFOR-TV,) where he was director of Special Projects. In that post, he produced and directed 19 documentary programs from 1969 until 1975. He joined NBC News in 1975 as a reporter at WKYC-TV, the NBC television station in Cleveland. Two years later, he opened NBC's first news bureau in Dallas from which he covered Central America. In 1979 he moved to the NBC News bureau in Atlanta. In addition to his Today and NBC Nightly News assignments, he also worked on several NBC News magazine programs.

Dotson was born in St. Louis, Mo. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism and political science from Kansas University (1968) and a Master of Science in television and film from Syracuse University (1969) where he was a Graduate Fellow and Outstanding Masters candidate. While attending college, he was a reporter and photographer for KMBC-TV in Kansas City, Missouri and was news director and reporter for KFKU-KANU-FM in Lawrence, Kansas.

Dotson lives in New York City, with his wife, the former Linda Puckett. They have one daughter, Amy.  

NBC Press Office Contact:
Lauren Kapp
212-664-2919
lauren.kapp@nbcuni.com