NBC newsman Richard Gerard Valeriani was born in Camden, New Jersey, on August 29, 1932. He received his bachelor's degree in 1953 from Yale University, where he was a part time sportscaster. He continued his education at the University of Barcelona and later at the University of Pavia in Italy. After serving with the U.S. Army, 1955-1956, he briefly reported for the Trenton, New Jersey, Trentonian. In 1957 Valeriani joined the Associated Press, working in New York for two years before being assigned to Cuba.
In April 1961 Valeriani became the Havana correspondent for NBC News. In Havana he was arrested five times before tensions over the Bay of Pigs invasion forced him to return to the United States. He then monitored Cuban radio and television from Miami until August, 1962. He worked as a roving correspondent from 1962 to 1965, covering the southern civil rights movement, especially events at the University of Mississippi and in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1965 he was beaten while reporting on a demonstration at Marion, Alabama. During this time he also went on assignment throughout Central America, covering the Panamanian riots of 1964 and winning an Overseas Press Club award in 1965 for his radio reporting from the Dominican Republic.
Valeriani covered the White House beat for NBC from 1968 until 1970 when he
was assigned to the State Department. He returned to the White House in 1972 and was reassigned to the State Department in 1973. As State Department correspondent Valeriani traveled over 400,000 miles with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, more than any other correspondent. Travels with Henry, Valeriani's anecdotal book about Kissinger, was published in 1979 by Houghton Mifflin. Valeriani's other writing included a stint as columnist for the Register and Tribune Syndicate.
In 1979 Valeriani was elected president of the State Department Correspondents Association.
In 1980 NBC appointed him Washington anchor for the Today show. He also worked as Pentagon correspondent for the network. In 1983 he was transferred to New York City where he covered national news events.
