Tom Cassidy (journalist)

Tom Cassidy (1950 – May 26, 1991) was the television business anchor for Cable News Network (CNN) an American cable news television station and the founder of the weekend show Pinnacle in 1982. Significantly, he was the CNN business news anchor during Black Monday, 19 October 1987. This was a famous day on Wall Street when the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) fell 508 points to 1739, a frightening drop during which time Cassidy's ongoing reporting during the afternoon and evening provided both credible information and a significant calmness to the American public. Diagnosed as HIV positive the same day, Cassidy went public on New York area television on an ongoing basis with his dilemma, treatment and progress (including revealing his diagnosis to his family on camera) in order to better educate the public about HIV/AIDS disease.

As Cassidy was a 1972 graduate of Bowdoin College, his will endowed Bowdoin with a lectureship in which prominent working journalists give lectures on a wide variety of topics each year. Thomas J. Cassidy lecturers at Bowdoin have included: Lou Dobbs of CNN; Linda Wertheimer of National Public Radio; Andrew Serwer of Fortune Magazine; and Amanda Griscom Little, environmental writer for The New York Times and The Washington Post.