NBC News anchorman and managing editor Tom Brokaw greets well-wishers during an autograph session in Yankton last April. Brokaw was signing copies of his book, "The Greatest Generation," which is still on the best-sellers list. Brokaw has been named Yankton's Local Personality of the Century by a survey of the Press and Dakotan readers.

He was a confident, unspoiled, talented, hard-working young man when he moved to a strange town as a youngster and took it by storm. He was a high school sophomore when he began in the Yankton school system -- a natural leader with a burning ambition to succeed. He earned his high school and college degrees while getting in his apprenticeship in a field that would make him a world-wide celebrity. He married the prettiest girl in town, eventually moved to New York, raised a beautiful family and captivated the elite in the Big Apple, too,

That is the seed of the story and the way it has progressed has surpassed all of a young man's dreams and hopes for the future.

Red Brokaw, Tom's father, was a construction foreman in the building of the great Missouri River dams immediately following the intense days of World War II. He brought his wife and three young boys to Pickstown, a small community built for the workers building the Fort Randall Dam, a huge structure near Lake Andes some 75 miles west of Yankton.

When construction of the Gavins Point Dam, just west of the city of Yankton, was set to begin, the Brokaw family came to the town they would eventually adopt as home. They built a home and settled down after moving from job to job during and after the war years.

The three Brokaw boys soon became acquainted with Yankton, making friends and helping to make the high school a better place.

Tom, in particular, became very active in the school and its activities. A fine student, his many activities, perhaps, kept him from being the best student in the class of 1958 but certainly didn't keep him from being the most popular guy. He was a member not only of the basketball team, his favorite sport, but also of the Bucks' championship football team (where he was the backup for one of the best-ever YHS athletes, Bill Whisler) and of the track team. Brokaw has always been a sports fan of the first water, and he heeps physically fit and very busy with his schedule.

Sports was not his only interest. He was involved in the school's journalism activities and became a member of Quill and Scroll, the honorary high school journalism fraternity. He took part in drama, debate and speech on the forensic side of the activities calendar; he was president of the student council and a winner in the Elks Leadership Contest. His crowning accomplishment was being elected Boys State governor in the summer between his junior and senior years.

In spite of the tremendously busy schedule in school and sparking his future wife, Meredith Auld, Brokaw aimed to get into the field of broadcasting and took a job as an announcer with radio station KYNT. His talent was not overlooked there.

Following his high school graduation, Brokaw attended the University of South Dakota.

Although he became a spirited and involved college boy who thoroughly enjoyed a good time, his more specific interests were emerging. He became a key staff member for the USD radio station KUSD and also became a disciple of Bill Farber, the guru of young men at USD who were interested in political science and history.

Brokaw also got his first taste of television reporting in those days, working at a station in Sioux City.

Brokaw got his BA in 1963. He immediately went to Omaha, Neb., for a job as an announcer on one of the Omaha TV outlets. His brief Omaha stay was followed by a gig in Atlanta, where he gained national attention while reporting the inflammable civil rights demonstrations led by Dr. Martin Luther King, a story Brokaw still ranks among his most important assignments.

He quickly moved up in responsibility and prestige and was contacted by NBC to come to work for them as a news anchor in Los Angeles. In relatively short time, he moved on to Washington where he was NBC's White House correspondent during the years of the Watergate scandal.

In 1976 he moved up to anchor the widely-watched "Today" show. Since 1983 the former Yanktonian with the great, distinctive voice and unsurpassed knowledge of the world's political situations has been the anchorman and managing editor of NBC's award-winning "Nightly News with Tom Brokaw."

He is still a favorite figure in his adopted home town, Yankton, and he was singularly honored by the community when it honorarily named one of its main thoroughfares, Broadway Avenue, "Tom Brokaw Boulevard."

Recently Brokaw became a top author when Random House published his first book, "The Greatest Generation," giving the stories of some World War II veterans, pre-war, war-time and post-war. It has remained on the nation's bests seller lists since its release in November 1998.

Along the way, Brokaw has achieved other notable firsts and has practically seen and reported it all in this day and age. He conducted the first one-on-one American interview with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and was the only anchor to report from the scene the night the Berlin Wall fell. He's reported first hand on such topics as human right abuses in Tibet and the Oklahoma City bombing. He was also the first network anchor to interview Charlie Trie and Johnny Chung in connection with the 1997 campaign finance abuse scandal.

Brokaw has also collected numerous awards throughout his career, including an Emmy for his special report, 'China in Crisis." He also has seven honorary college degrees.

He has not forgotten his South Dakota roots. He is helped fund a Native American studies program at Yankton High School.

Success has always been the name of the game for Tom Brokaw. It couldn't have happened to a better guy. Ask his high school classmates.