Melissa Block

In a 2002 press release announcing her appointment as co-host the National Public Radio (NPR) show “All Things Considered,” longtime reporter Melissa J. Block ’83 credited “an aversion to law school” with drawing her to journalism.

Block, who has been with the daily evening news program she still co-hosts for two decades, was only partly joking. After receiving her undergraduate degree, the French History and Literature concentrator deferred her admission to Yale Law School for a year to study in Switzerland on a Fulbright grant. The following year, still harboring doubts, she deferred once more. And a year later, she tried to do it again.

“The nice woman at admissions finally said, ‘you know, I think you’re happy doing what you’re doing. I don’t think you need to go to law school,’” Block recalled. “And I said ‘but I really like the option!’”

Instead of reapplying to Yale, Block found herself booking interviews at “All Things Considered” by 1985. She soon discovered that her options there were not drastically limited.

“NPR is unlike any other sort of radio so, once I found my niche, I had done just about every job there,” Block said. She worked her way from booker to producer before becoming a reporter for the show in 1993—a job that took her everywhere from the day-after debris of Sept. 11, 2001 to a reeling Mississipi in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

On a trip last month to China with co-host Robert Siegel, Block visited Chengdu and witnessed the earthquake that rocked the region, causing thousands of casualties and making international headlines. Block, who had been preparing to interview a Protestant minister when the quake started, was able to file a story narrated from the midst of the disaster.

“I didn’t feel personally in danger at that moment,” said Block, recalling the episode. “People have said when they listen to me narrate what’s going on that I sounded remarkably calm and maybe I was in shock, or maybe it was just because I hadn’t seen buildings falling down around me.”

Despite her apparent savor for adventure, Block’s freshman year roommates recall a young lady more intent on her music—she played viola for the Bach Society orchestra—than on any journalistic pursuits. Although Block did write briefly for the weekly Harvard Independent, her companions would show more of a flair for the on-air throughout college.

“It’s actually quite funny because there were four of us in our freshman dorm and two of us did WHRB [Harvard Radio] through our four years of college,” Carol D. Cahn ’83 said. “It wasn’t Melissa. We laugh when we realize she’s become this famous radio personality.”

—Staff writer Christian B. Flow can be reached at cflow@fas.harvard.edu.