The Associated Press

NBC's Brian Williams will take a break from delivering the nightly news to millions of people across the country to accept a journalism award from Arizona State University in Tempe.

Williams is set to accept the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism on Wednesday. The ceremony will be held at the Sheraton hotel in downtown Phoenix.

Williams says he grew up idolizing Cronkite and only hopes he is worthy of the meaning and tradition of the award.

Williams became the seventh anchor and managing editor of "NBC Nightly News" in 2004, replacing Tom Brokaw, who won the Cronkite Award three years ago.

Previous Cronkite Award recipients include TV journalists Tom Brokaw, Bill Moyers and Jane Pauley, and newspaper journalists Ben Bradlee, Helen Thomas and Bob Woodward.