Born in Montréal, Québec, Robert MacNeil grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, attended Dalhousie University and graduated from Carleton University in Ottawa in 1955. He began working in the news field in London, and then for NBC News as a correspondent in Washington, D.C. He was covering John F. Kennedy's 1963 visit to Dallas and was a witness to the shooting. It was in 1971 that he joined PBS, originally hosting Washington Week in Review.
Robert MacNeil died of natural causes at the age of 93.
