Kari Braido grew up watching her father at work—just like millions of people around the world did. Charles Bierbauer ’66, ’70 MA Com spent 20 years at CNN as the Pentagon, White House, and senior Washington correspondent, traveling the world and reporting on presidential campaigns and international crises. 

“As a young kid, I knew he followed the presidents and reported on them,” Braido ’96 Bus says. “Seeing him on TV, to me, was just normal.” 

Bierbauer began his journalism career in his native Pennsylvania at radio station WKAP and the Allentown Morning Call before making his way to national and international outlets including the Associated Press, ABC News, and CNN. He won an Emmy Award for his coverage of the 1996 Olympic bombing, and he served as president of the White House Correspondents’ Association.

“He was the most intelligent person I have ever known,” Braido says. “He could talk about any topic to any audience—politics, sports, current events—he was so well-rounded.”  

After a full career in journalism, he became dean of the University of South Carolina’s College of Information and Communications and began a complementary career teaching the next generation of journalists. While in South Carolina, Bierbauer led the effort that moved the school to a new state-of-the-art building, and he created a statewide literacy initiative. “Teaching was a passion,” Braido says. He was named a Penn State Alumni Fellow in 1980, and a Distinguished Alumnus in 1991.

Bierbauer died Aug. 29, 2025, in Spruce Pine, N.C.; he was 83. Besides Braido, he is survived by his wife, Susanne Schafer, sons Alec ’96 Bus, Craig, and Andrew, and eight grandchildren. —RR