Julian Goodman, a Glasgow native who was a former president of NBC, died Monday at age 90 in Juno Beach, Fla.

Goodman, a Western Kentucky University graduate, was inducted into the university’s Hall of Distinguished Alumni in 1992, the first year it was established.

He was a first cousin of the late Dero Downing, who served as WKU’s fourth president.

Downing’s widow, Harriet Downing of Bowling Green, said she and her husband were very close to Goodman. “Julian was one of the brightest people that I ever knew,” Harriet Downing said Monday. “He was very dedicated and a wonderful journalist.”

Goodman began his 34-year career with NBC News in 1945, according an obituary produced by NBC. He had a variety of roles with the company in Washington and New York City before serving as president of NBC from 1966-74.

Goodman was also a devoted family man and loyal WKU supporter who helped his alma mater in any way he could, Downing said.

“It always held a very special place in his heart,” she said.

It was Dero Downing who granted Goodman a degree from WKU in the 1970s, Goodman said in an oral history of himself in 1985. Goodman was a few credits shy of a degree in English and journalism before joining the U.S. Army in 1943, he said. He attended night school at George Washington University when he returned, but WKU wouldn’t accept those credits for graduation. His cousin gave him a degree several decades later.

“He was one of the most successful graduates ever from WKU,” Downing said.

Goodman, who retired from NBC in 1979 as chairman of the network’s board, received the National Association of Broadcaster’s Distinguished Service Award in 1976 and was elected into the Hall of Fame for the New York Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists in 1975, according to his biography on WKU’s Hall of Distinguished Alumni website.

During Goodman’s tenure at NBC, he helped establish Chet Huntley and David Brinkley as a prominent news team at a time when Huntley and Brinkley were competitors to Walter Cronkite on CBS.

As network president, he gave Johnny Carson a long-term contract to stay on the “Tonight” show and helped establish the American Football League by broadcasting the upstart league’s games. NBC also televised the 1969 Super Bowl, in which the New York Jets beat the favored Baltimore Colts. And Goodman was at the helm during an infamous football incident: NBC switched to the movie “Heidi” in 1968 and missed an exciting finish to a Jets-Raiders game.

Goodman later expressed pride at being included on former President Richard Nixon’s “enemies list.”

“Julian was one of the great statesmen of network television, a journalist who rose through the ranks to the highest levels of NBC – and always stayed true to the place of public service as an obligation of what we do,” former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw said in an Associated Press report.

Goodman was active in WKU’s Alumni Association and stayed connected to the campus, said Donald Smith, executive director of the Alumni Association.

“He was very instrumental with our broadcasting program,” Smith said. “He got it to where it is today.”

Goodman was passionate about journalism, Downing said.

“I think it was in his make up to be interested in people and to put words and thoughts together to give them meaning,” she said.

Goodman is survived by his wife and four children.

—The Associated Press contributed information to this report.