Bill Geist

William "Bill" Geist (born May 10, 1945) is an American author, columnist, and television journalist. Geist was born in Champaign, Illinois, and graduated from Champaign Central High School. He served in the United States Army as a combat photographer with the First Infantry Division in Vietnam. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, graduating with a BA Communications (1968), and the University of Missouri, graduating with an MA in Communications (1971). He later returned to the University of Illinois, giving the speech at the 2005 commencement. Geist began his career in 1972 when he joined the Chicago Tribune's Suburban Trib subsidiary, where he worked as a reporter and columnist until 1980. From 1980 until 1987,...