My dad and I share the same name, and when I was very young, he was know as Tim and I was Timmy. When I was around 10, people called us Big Tim and Little Tim. In high school, when I shout up to 6 foot 2 and no longer qualified as “Little” Tim, I started referring to Dad as Big Russ, as in “There'll be hell to pay when Big Russ finds out about this,” and I've thought of him as Big Russ ever since. Not long ago, I overheard my son, Luke, referring to me as “the Big Guy,” as in “It sounds OK, but I have to check with the Big Guy.”

Although Dad and I have always been close, our relationship has never been marked by open displays of affection. But that chaged a few years ago when NBC organized a series called “Going Home,” in which the network's news anchors and the hosts of its major news programs returned to the communities where they grew up and talked about the values and the cultures that shaped their lives.