Photo courtesy of Amanda Marshall NBC correspondent Bob Dotson and soundman Bill Heinlein tape an on-camera segment in Nikolaevsk, The Church of Saint Nicholas is in the background.

Dotson was looking for a story.

As a 30-plus year NBC news correspondent, Dotson has made a career of looking into seldom-seen places and discovering common threads that link humanity together. During the four days he and his team Today Show producer Amanda Marshall, cameraman Glen Aust, soundman Bill Heinlein and Dotson's wife Linda, who has a sharp eye for a story and an equally sharp and delightful sense of humor found their story in Nikolaevsk.

"It's actually a two-fold story," Dotson said, referring to the way Father Nikolai Yakunin, a Russian Old Believer, has held his family together in the face of many changes, and the story of Anecta and Katalia Kalugin, whose wedding the Today Show was allowed to film.

Always on the lookout for new topics to cover, Dotson credited Marshall with the idea of looking into Alaska's community of Russian Old Believers.

"Nobody knew who they were," Dotson said, a fact which added to his interest.

Through local contacts and advance planning, Dotson and his team were invited into Nikolaevsk to interview the Yakunin family, to film the wedding held inside the Church of Saint Nicholas and to interview the bride and groom.

Wedding preparations might overwhelm some families, but, in spite of guests from Oregon and the Ukraine, the Yakunins welcomed Dotson and his crew. Yakunin said the hospitality was repaid with courtesy.

"It went, actually, very well," he said. "They followed our instruction and we're thankful for that."

That has not always been the case when television crews have found their way to Nikolaevsk.

"Other times, we've had TV crews from abroad come and they just abused the privileges," Yakunin said. "These people were very good. They followed our instructions about what they could do, what they could film. We appreciated that."

This marks the first time an American television network has been to the village 10 miles east of Anchor Point.

"We don't really want a story, but we kind of feel that it's something that needs to be done, so it needs to be done," Yakunin said.

What Dotson found in Nikolaevsk is exactly what he has found everywhere.

"We're the same," he said.

Showing the extraordinary truth of that simple statement has been a common theme in Dotson's special reports, "American Story with Bob Dotson," on the Today Show and other NBC programs, as well as "Bob Dotson's America," a half-hour program on the Travel Channel. He also is the author of two books: "Make it Memorable" and "In Pursuit of the American Dream."

Dotson's writing has earned him the George Washington Honor Medal for excellence. For his work as a broadcast journalist, Dotson has received more than 100 awards, including four National Emmys and eight nominations. In 2004, he was recognized for "Best Network Feature Reporting of 2004" by the Society of Professional Journalists. He also has received awards from the National Press Photographers, Dupont-Columbia and the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation. One of his films, "El Capitan's Courageous Climbers," won the CINE Grand Prize in 1991.

Dotson's relaxed style, his interest in what's going on around him and his eye for simple stories that are pieces of the big picture are evident when he speaks of subjects he's covered, people he's met and places he's been. There's the 73-year-old man who has made a fortune selling potato peelers on a New York street corner. There are the monks who have turned a simple business idea into a booming success benefiting numerous charities. There's the 9-year-old blues singer that can belt out the blues "like he's had three wives."

Photos courtesy of Amanda Marshall NBC correspondent Bob Dotson, second from right, interviews newlyweds Anecta and Katalia Kalugin shortly after their wedding in Nikolaevsk Sunday. Standing on either side of the couple are Alexey Kalugin and Tina Fefelov. Bill Heinlein, right, captures the sound.

And there's the Yakunin family.

The story on the Yakunins, which brought the Dotsons and Marshall from NBC offices in New York City and Aust and Heinlein from Seattle, will eventually be a five-minute segment that will air sometime in September.

"That's a documentary," Dotson said of being given that much time on national television.

Over dinner their last evening in Homer, the Dotsons and Marhsall recounted their visit to Nikolaevsk and Homer, recalling with delight details of the trip.

"Are you on a cruise? You're having a lot of fun," a nearby diner asked.

"People on a cruise don't have this much fun," Dotson said, his winning smile and warm laugh a key to the stories he finds and shares.

To view previous topics covered on "American Story with Bob Dotson," visit the Web at allday.msnbc.msn.com/archive/category/1126.aspx.

McKibben Jackinsky can be reached at mckibben.jackinsky@homernews.com.