Don Hewitt , the man who created ’60 Minutes’ has died at 86 years old. Hewitt was a CBS newsman since 1948. Earlier this years he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and underwent treatment.

He has created the popular ’60 minutes’ program in 1968 which pioneered the TV newsmagazine format. Hewitt was also its executive producer and made it the most successful broadcast in the history of television journalism. He has retired in 2004.

Hewitt also produced the 1960 Nixon-Kennedy debate, which might have cost Richard Nixon the election.

He was honored with the second annual Lifetime Achievement Emmy presented by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In 1995, he was awarded the Founders Emmy by the International Council of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Don Hewitt wrote ’Tell Me a Story: Fifty Years and 60 Minutes in Television’, which describes his life as journalist.