Robert Bjarne Camfiord, 77; Directed CBS Programs

Robert Bjarne "Barney" Camfiord, 77, a former director of CBS news programs, died Aug. 5 at Inova Fairfax Hospital. He had emphysema.

Mr. Camfiord began his career with CBS-TV in 1955 in New York as a film editor. In 1963, he came to the CBS Washington bureau, where he directed "Face the Nation" and the "CBS Morning News." He also directed Washington segments of the "CBS Evening News."

Among the major news events that Mr. Camfiord covered as a director were the Cuban missile crisis; the 1963 March on Washington, which featured Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech; the funerals of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy; the first Apollo moon landing in 1969; and the Watergate hearings.

He left CBS in 1987 when the company's chief executive, Laurence Tisch, ordered drastic budget cuts and layoffs.

"People who have nothing to do with the broadcasting industry and don't know what they're doing have taken over," Mr. Camfiord told The Washington Post at the time. "They are destroying the best news organization that broadcasting has ever seen or will ever see."

Soon afterward, Mr. Camfiord returned to CBS as a contract employee and continued to work as a director of weekend news broadcasts and "America Tonight" until 2005.

Mr. Camfiord was a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and served in the Air Force in the 1950s. He attended City College of New York and began his broadcast career in Tennessee before joining CBS.

He lived in Clifton for many years and was a knowledgeable connoisseur of jazz and film. He collected books and model warplanes and also enjoyed history and camping.

His marriage to Carolyn Pettefer Camfiord ended in divorce.

Survivors include his wife of 40 years, Tiana Gillespie Camfiord of Clifton; two children from his first marriage, Elizabeth Camfiord of Los Angeles and Miles Camfiord of Burlingame, Calif.; two children from his second marriage, Jason Camfiord of Clifton and Nathan Camfiord of Fairfax County; and four grandchildren.

-- Matt Schudel