Andy Rooney Andrew Aitken " Andy " Rooney ( January 14 , 1919 – November 4 , 2011 ) was an American radio and television writer . He was most notable for his weekly broadcast " A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney , " a part of the CBS News program " 60 Minutes " from 1978 to 2011 . His final regular appearance on " 60 Minutes " aired October 2 , 2011 . He died one month later , on November 4 , 2011 , at age 92 . Early life and education . Rooney was born Andrew Aitken Rooney in Albany , the son of Walter Scott Rooney ( 1888 – 1959 ) and Ellinor ( Reynolds ) Rooney ( 1886 – 1980 ) . He attended The Albany Academy , and later attended Colgate University in Hamilton in Central New York , where he was initiated into the Sigma Chi fraternity , before he was drafted into the United States Army in August 1941 . World War II . Rooney began his career in newspapers while in the Army when , in 1942 , he began writing for " Stars and Stripes " in London during World War II . In February 1943 , flying with the Eighth Air Force , he was one of six correspondents who flew on the second American bombing raid over Germany . Later , he was one of the first American journalists to visit the Nazi concentration camps near the end of World War II , and one of the first to write about them . During a segment on Tom Brokaw ' s " The Greatest Generation " , Rooney stated that he had been opposed to World War II because he was a pacifist . He recounted that what he saw in those concentration camps made him ashamed that he had opposed the war and permanently changed his opinions about whether " just wars " exist . For his service as a war correspondent in combat zones during the war Rooney was decorated with the Bronze Star Medal and Air Medal . Rooney ' s 1995 memoir , " My War " , chronicles his war reporting . In addition to recounting firsthand several notable historical events and people ( including the entry into Paris and the Nazi concentration camps ) , Rooney describes how it shaped his experience both as a writer and reporter . Career . Rooney joined CBS in 1949 , as a writer for " Arthur Godfrey ' s Talent Scouts " , when Godfrey was at his peak on CBS radio and TV . It opened the show up to a variety of viewers . The program was a hit , reaching number one in 1952 , during Rooney ' s tenure with the program . It was the beginning of a close lifelong friendship between Rooney and Godfrey . He wrote for Godfrey ' s daytime radio and TV show " Arthur Godfrey Time " . He later moved on to " The Garry Moore Show " , which became a hit program . During the same period , he wrote for CBS News public affairs programs such as " The Twentieth Century " . According to CBS News ' s biography of him , " Rooney wrote his first television essay , a longer - length precursor of the type he does on " 60 Minutes " , in 1964 , " An Essay on Doors . " From 1962 to 1968 he collaborated with another close friend , the late CBS News correspondent Harry Reasoner — Rooney writing and producing , Reasoner narrating — on such notable CBS News specials as " An Essay on Bridges " ( 1965 ) , " An Essay on Hotels " ( 1966 ) , " An Essay on Women " ( 1967 ) , and " The Strange Case of the English Language " ( 1968 ) . In 1968 , he wrote two CBS News specials in the series " Of Black America , " and his script for " Black History : Lost , Stolen , or Strayed " won him his first Emmy . " When CBS declined to broadcast his World War II memoir , titled " An Essay on War " , in 1970 , Rooney quit CBS and read the opinion himself on PBS — his first appearance on television . That show in 1971 won Rooney his third Writers Guild Award . Rooney re - joined CBS in 1973 , to write and produce special programs . He also wrote the script for the 1975 documentary " FDR : The Man Who Changed America " . After his return to the network , Rooney wrote and appeared in several prime - time specials for CBS , including " In Praise of New York City " ( 1974 ) , the Peabody Award - winning " Mr . Rooney Goes to Washington " ( 1975 ) , " Mr . Rooney Goes to Dinner " ( 1978 ) , and " Mr . Rooney Goes to Work " ( 1977 ) . Transcripts of these specials , as well as of some of the earlier collaborations with Reasoner , are contained in the book " A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney " . Another special , " Andy Rooney Takes Off " , followed in 1984 . " A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney " . Rooney ' s " end - of - show " segment on " 60 Minutes " , " A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney " ( originally " Three Minutes or So With Andy Rooney " ) , began in 1978 , as a summer replacement for the debate segment " Point / Counterpoint " featuring Shana Alexander and James Kilpatrick . The segment proved popular enough with viewers that beginning in the fall of 1978 , it was seen in alternate weeks with the debate segment . At the end of the 1978 – 1979 season , " Point / Counterpoint " was dropped altogether . In the segment , Rooney typically offered satire on a trivial everyday issue , such as the cost of groceries , annoying relatives , or faulty Christmas presents . Rooney ' s appearances on " A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney " often included whimsical lists , e . g . , types of milk , bottled water brands , car brands , sports mascot s , etc . In later years , his segments became more political as well . Despite being best known for his television presence on " 60 Minutes " , Rooney always considered himself a writer who incidentally appeared on television behind his famous walnut table , which he made himself . Controversies . Rooney made a number of comments which elicited strong reactions from fans and producers alike . Comments on minorities . Rooney wrote a column in 1992 that posited that it was " silly " for Native Americans to complain about team names like the Redskins , in which he wrote in part , " The real problem is , we took the country away from the Indians , they want it back and we ' re not going to give it to them . We feel guilty and we ' ll do what we can for them within reason , but they can ' t have their country back . Next question . " After receiving many letters from Native Americans he wrote " when so many people complain about one thing , you have to assume you may have been wrong " . In a 2007 column for " Tribune " media services , he wrote , " I know all about Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig , but today ' s baseball stars are all guys named Rodriguez to me . " Rooney later commented , " Yeah , I probably shouldn ' t have said it , [ but ] it ' s a name that seems common in baseball now . I certainly didn ' t think of it in any derogatory sense . " In 1990 , Rooney was suspended without pay for three months by then - CBS News President David Burke , because of the negative publicity around his saying that " too much alcohol , too much food , drugs , homosexual unions , [ are ] all known to lead to premature death . " He wrote an explanatory letter to a gay organization after being ordered not to do so . After only four weeks without Rooney , " 60 Minutes " lost 20 percent of its audience . CBS management then decided that it was in the best interest of the network to have Rooney return immediately . After Rooney ' s reinstatement , he made his remorse public : Rooney always denied that he was a racist . In the 1940s , he was arrested after sitting in the back of a segregated bus in protest . Also , in 2008 , when Barack Obama was elected president of the United States , Rooney applauded the fact that " the citizens of this country , 80 percent of whom are white , freely chose to elect a black man as their leader simply because they thought he was the best choice . " He said that makes him proud , and that it proves that the country has " come a long way — a good way . " Remarks on Kurt Cobain ' s suicide . In a 1994 segment , Rooney attracted controversy with his remarks on Kurt Cobain ' s suicide . He expressed his dismay that the death of Richard Nixon was overshadowed by Cobain ' s suicide , stating that he had never heard of Cobain or his band , Nirvana . He went on to say that Cobain ' s suicide made him angry . " A lot of people would like to have the years left that he threw away , " Rooney said . " What ' s all this nonsense about how terrible life is ? " he asked , adding rhetorically to a young woman who had wept at the suicide , " I ' d love to relieve the pain you ' re going through by switching my age for yours . " In addition , he asked " What would all these young people be doing if they had real problems like a Depression , World War II or Vietnam ? " and commented that " If [ Cobain ] applied the same brain to his music that he applied to his drug - infested life , it ' s reasonable to think that his music may not have made much sense either . " On the following Sunday ' s show , he apologized on the air , saying he should have taken Cobain ' s depression into account . He also read only critical feedback from listeners without interjecting any commentary of his own . Collections and retirement . Rooney ' s shorter television essays have been archived in numerous books , such as " Common Nonsense " , which came out in 2002 , and " Years of Minutes " , probably his best - known work , released in 2003 . He penned a regular syndicated column for Tribune Media Services that ran in many newspapers in the United States , and which has been collected in book form . He won three Emmy Awards for his essays , which numbered over 1 , 000 . He was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 2003 . Rooney ' s renown made him a frequent target of parodies and impersonations by a diverse group of comedic figures , including Frank Caliendo , Rich Little and Beavis . In 1993 , CBS released a two - volume VHS tape set of the best of Rooney ' s commentaries and field reports , called " The Andy Rooney Television Collection — His Best Minutes . " In 2006 , CBS released three DVDs of his more recent commentaries , " Andy Rooney On Almost Everything , " " Things That Bother Andy Rooney , " and " Andy Rooney ' s Solutions . " Rooney ' s final regular appearance on " 60 Minutes " was on October 2 , 2011 , after 33 years on the show . It was his 1 , 097th commentary . Views . He claimed on " Larry King Live " to have a liberal bias , stating , " There is just no question that I , among others , have a liberal bias . I mean , I ' m consistently liberal in my opinions . " In a controversial 1999 book Rooney self - identified as agnostic , but by 2004 he was calling himself an atheist . He reaffirmed this in 2008 . Over the years , many of his editorials poked fun at the concept of God and organized religion . Increased speculation on this was brought to a head by a series of comments he made regarding Mel Gibson ' s film " The Passion of the Christ " ( 2004 ) . Though Rooney has been called Irish - American , he once said " I ' m proud of my Irish heritage , but I ' m not Irish . I ' m not even Irish - American . I am American , period . " In 2005 , when four people were fired at CBS News perhaps because of the Killian documents controversy , Rooney said , " The people on the front lines got fired while the people most instrumental in getting the broadcast on escaped . " Others at CBS had " kept mum " about the controversy . Personal life . Rooney was married to Marguerite " Margie " Rooney ( née Howard ) for 62 years , until she died of heart failure in 2004 . He later wrote , " her name does not appear as often as it originally did [ in my essays ] because it hurts too much to write it . " They had four children ; Brian , Emily , Martha and Ellen . His daughter Emily Rooney is a TV talk show host and former ABC News producer who went on to host a nightly Boston - area public affairs program , " Greater Boston " , on WGBH . Emily ' s identical twin , Martha , became Chief of the Public Services Division at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda , Maryland ; her son Justin works as the Pentagon producer for Fox News . The third daughter , Ellen , is a photographer based in London . His son , Brian Rooney , has been a correspondent for ABC since the 1980s . Rooney also had a sister , Nancy Reynolds Rooney ( 1915 – 2007 ) . Rooney lived in the Rowayton section of Norwalk , Connecticut , and in Rensselaerville , New York , and was a longtime season ticket holder for the New York Giants . Death . Rooney was hospitalized on October 25 , 2011 , after developing postoperative complications from an undisclosed surgery , and died on November 4 , 2011 , at the age of 92 , less than five weeks after his last appearance on " 60 Minutes " . Books . Books written by Rooney :