Newscaster Sam Donaldson Dedication Keeps Him At The Top.(A)

Byline: Curt Schleier

Sam Donaldson had an epiphany between his first and second years at the New Mexico Military Institute.

His widowed mother sent her rambunctious son to the high school hoping he'd pick up some discipline. But as Donaldson, now 67, told the Academy of Achievement, the only thing he learned that first year was how to pick up demerits and walk around the campus quadrangle with his rifle, punishment for his various infractions.

"I mean, I really was in sad, sad shape," he said.

But something happened that summer. "I can't tell you what. . . . I just sort of said to myself: "I don't like this. This is not fun, being the saddest cadet.' "

So he turned himself around. He polished his brass and shoes, got to reveille on time and made high grades. By the end of that year he was one of only half a dozen cadets promoted to sergeant.

"I learned a couple of things there," he said. "One, that it's better to be with the winners than the losers. And second, that everybody needs to understand something about discipline."