Peter Jennings, who died of lung cancer on Sunday at the age of 67, was the ABC news anchorman who formed part of the network troika that calmly steered America through turbulent times even as his medium, television, was itself in the throes of great change.

Along with Dan Rather of CBS and Tom Brokaw of NBC, both of whom have retired in the last year, he was a constant figure each evening in the living rooms of the nation for nearly a quarter of a century.