Longtime Eyewitness News anchor and AM America host, Bill Beutel, has died of complications from a progressive neurological disorder at his home in Pinehurst, North Carolina. He was 75.

Beutel, who closed the his nightly news cast with his trademark "Good luck and be well" sign-off, is credited with changing the nature of how local television news is presented. He was the eternally unruffled anchor for WABC-TV's Eyewitness News for over 30 years. Always a gentleman, Beutel was considered a tough newsman and was well-respected by not only his viewers, but by his peers as well.

Born William Charles Beutel in Cleveland, Ohio, Beutel was the son of a dentist. After graduating from Dartmouth, Beutel went to the University of Michigan Law School, but left after the first year to pursue journalism. He has been quoted as saying that he was inspired to be a reporter while listening to the broadcasts of Edward R. Murrow from London during the Battle of Britain. He got his start as a radio reporter in Cleveland, his hometown. He started working in television in 1962, when he joined ABC as a reporter for the national news broadcast and as an anchor on the local New York news program The Big News. He went on to became the London bureau chief for ABC News in 1968, where he worked with a young Peter Jennings. In 1970, he returned to New York to man the local anchor desk. On January 6, 1975, Beutel joined Stephanie Edwards as host of the new morning show, AM America which became ABC's Good Morning America.

Beutel won several Emmy awards, as well as a Peabody award. He retired as anchor of Eyewitness News in 2001, but still continued to work as a correspondent, for two more years. He reported frequently from overseas and, at age 70, he traveled to cover the dangers surrounding the diamond trade in Sierra Leone.

He is survived by his wife, Adair; sister, Mary Lou Henley; four children from a previous marriage, Peter Beutel, Robin Gamble, Colby Beutel-Burns, and Heather Fortinberry, as well as eight grandchildren.