As an ABC News correspondent for the past 25 years, Jim Wooten (’58) worked in 40 countries on five continents. This nationally renowned journalist credits Bethel for teaching him how to be part of a community – a quality he says served him well over the years.

 

“Community is how we live for all of our lives, and one needs to learn how to do that. I learned a lot about that here at Bethel, and it helped me to deal with working in places where the sense of community is completely absent,” Wooten said.

 

Over the years, Wooten covered several wars, including the revolutions in El Salvador and Nicaragua, Grenada, the October War of 1973, Israel, Syria, Egypt, Bosnia and Kosovo, Desert Storm, Afghanistan, Rwanda, Sierra Leon, Somalia and Ethiopia. He also covered U.S. presidential campaigns from 1968 through 2004, as well as the 40th, 50th and 60th anniversaries of D-Day in Normandy.

 

Wooten’s distinguished career includes service as White House correspondent for the New York Times, columnist for the Philadelphia Enquirer, and several positions with ABC News, including senior network correspondent. Wooten now works part-time on ABC’s “Nightline” with Ted Koppel.

 

The child of a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, Wooten was encouraged to attend Bethel by his parents, J.R. and Clara Wooten of Owensville, Indiana.

 

“I had great fun at Bethel,” Wooten said. "I'm filled with golden memories of this place."

 

After graduation, Wooten attended seminary and became a CP minister, but soon realized it was not his true calling. He became a high school teacher in Greenville, Kentucky, while also working for the local weekly newspaper.

 

Soon after, he was offered a job as editor of the Weakley County Press in Martin, Tennessee. In the mid-1960s, he ran into an old friend who reported for the Huntsville Times. Through this connection, Wooten quickly landed a job at the Alabama newspaper.

 

It was Wooten’s work reporting on the civil rights movement during his 14 months in Huntsville that caught the eye of the New York Times. The paper offered him a job in the mid-1960s and he and his family relocated to New York.

 

Wooten is the recipient of several national awards for excellence in journalism. He is also the author of four books: Soldier; Playing Around; Dasher: The Roots and Rising of Jimmy Carter; and We Are All the Same. 

Wooten reporting in Bosnia	Wooten with President Carter