A 30-year ABC News veteran, Gibson was the anchor of the network's nightly newscast from 2006 to 2009, when he retired and handed over the show to Diane Sawyer.

Gibson grew up in Washington, D.C. and started his media career in college working as news director of the Princeton radio station. Following a short stint in radio, Gibson joined a syndicated television news service and covered the Watergate scandal and President Nixon's resignation from office. In 1975 Gibson moved to ABC News, where he covered the White House and Capitol Hill, before joining World News Tonight. He landed the job of co-anchor of Good Morning America in 1987, and stayed with GMA off and on until 2006. Following Peter Jennings's death, and a short-lived experiment in which Bob Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas hosted the evening newscast, Gibson took over as anchor of World News Tonight in 2006.

He was surprisingly successful during his three year run. Although ABC had consistently trailed NBC's Brian Williams in the ratings, Gibson managed to pull ahead for the first time in February 2007. In September 2009 he announced his plans for retirement, and despite efforts to convince him to stay, he was replaced by Diane Sawyer later that year.

Gibson's wife, Arlene, was previously head of the Upper East Side private school Spence. They have two children, Jessica and Katherine. [Image via Getty]