UA News

Rivera will be returning to his alma mater on Nov. 19 for a series of public events associated with the release of his new book.

Geraldo Rivera, an alumnus of The University of Arizona and currently host of "Geraldo at Large" on FOX News Channel, will be returning to his alma mater on Nov. 19 for a series of public events associated with the release of his new book "His Panic."

Rivera will be signing copies of his book Nov. 19 at 1 p.m. at the UA BookStore. At 7 p.m., Rivera will be speaking at the Fox Theatre and fielding questions about his book and the immigration debate in the U.S.

In addition to attending a private breakfast with UA officials, Rivera will visit the UA School of Media Arts and meet with students and faculty.

"I am looking forward to returning to my alma mater after many years," Rivera said. "I remain grateful to the UA for my education there, which prepared me for law school."

Rivera's visit to the UA is sponsored by Wells Fargo, UA College of Fine Arts, UA School of Media Arts and the Hanson Film Institute.

"We are delighted that Geraldo will be able to spend time visiting the UA School of Media Arts and viewing the work of some of our students and faculty, including work by Hispanic media arts students," said Vicky Westover, program director of the Hanson Film Institute.

Before hosting "Geraldo at Large," Rivera was a correspondent at FOX News Channel, which he joined in November 2001.

Rivera began his career as a reporter for WABC-TV in New York where he presented a series exposing the deplorable conditions at the Willowbrook State School for the mentally ill. These award-winning reports led to a government investigation and the institution was eventually shut down.

Before becoming a member of the original cast of ABC's "Good Morning America," Rivera presented the first television broadcast of the infamous Abraham Zapruder film of the assassination of President John Kennedy as host of ABC's "Good Night America." He then began an eight-year association with ABC's "20/20" as an investigative reporter. One of his hour-long reports, "The Elvis Cover-Up" was for more than two decades "20/20's" highest rated show.

In 1987, Geraldo began producing and hosting "The Geraldo Rivera Show" for 11 years. In 1998, he hosted a series of investigative specials on NBC.

The winner of the 2000 Robert F. Kennedy journalism award (his third) for his NBC News documentary "Women In Prison," and the Scripps Howard Foundation national journalism award for "Back to Bedlam," Rivera has received more than 170 awards for journalism, including the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award, three national and seven local Emmys, two Columbia-Dupont and two additional Scripps Howard Journalism Awards.

Prior to joining FOX News, Rivera served as host of CNBC's number-one rated prime time show, "Rivera Live," where his coverage of the O.J. Simpson civil trial verdict set an all-time CNBC ratings record.

Rivera is a graduate of the UA and Brooklyn Law School and is the author of seven books.

Rivera was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, one of five children born to a Jewish mother and a Puerto Rican father. He considers his national origin to be Puerto Rican and his religious faith to be Judaism. He spent his first five years in the tenements of Brooklyn until his family moved to West Babylon, Long Island.

Rivera attended New York Community College and the State University of New York Maritime College before leaving school to become a merchant seaman. He then moved to Los Angeles and played professional soccer with two Mexican-American teams. With the money he earned playing soccer, he enrolled in the UA in 1963. After graduation, he returned to New York and enrolled in Brooklyn Law School, where he graduated in 1969.

While in law school he worked with the Legal Aid Society, the Harlem Assertion of Rights and Community Action for Legal Services. He practiced law in a shop-front legal bureau in Harlem for two years before being hired by WABC-TV in New York as a bilingual reporter.