Santa Ana-born Don Mozley was a recent graduate of the University of Missouri when CBS News hired him in 1942 and sent him to San Francisco to help cover World War II. At 21 years old, he was the network’s youngest correspondent and was the first reporter to break the news of Japan’s unconditional surrender in 1945.
Mozley also covered the atomic bomb tests at Bikini in the Marshall Islands, and traveled on the presidential campaigns of Sen. Robert A. Taft, Richard M. Nixon and General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
CBS acquired the pioneering Bay Area radio station known as KQW, the station’s call letters were subsequently changed to KCBS and, ultimately, Mozley became a part of the station’s broadcasts for the next several decades.
Mozley was KCBS News Director for 15 years, where he also served as a news anchor and reporter, in addition to covering the automotive industry in his long-running “California Driver” and “Auto Test” features.
Don Mozley died in 2011 at age 90.