Jon Meacham

Born in Chattanooga, he attended elementary school at Saint Nicholas School, moving to the McCallie School and the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, and graduating summa cum laude in English Literature; he was salutatorian and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

On Charles Ommanney, Newsweek photographer for the White House: To be a photojournalist at the highest levels like that requires a great deal of innate political skill. You have to at once make people so comfortable with you that, at hours of great tension and great trial, they let you into the room. Then, once you have talked your way into the room, you have to disappear. It's a very tricky skill set, Charles has it.