Gabe Pressman

Veteran journalist and American institution

Gabe Pressman, an intrepid, Emmywinning journalist who still relished going to work at the age of 93, died in his sleep early on Friday at a Manhattan hospital.

“This is an incredibly sad day for the WNBC family,” said Eric Lerner, president and general manager of the station where Pressman worked for more than 50 years. “He was truly one of a kind and represented the very best in television news reporting.”

Pressman launched his sixdecade broadcast career after stints at New Jersey’s Newark Evening News and the New York World Telegram and Sun. He covered the 1956 sinking of the Italian ocean liner Andrea Doria, riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention and countless politicians.

Though he was primarily a broadcast journalist, he “never stopped loving writing,” said his daughter Liz Pressman, who called him “an inspiration”. He wrote on Facebook every few days and enjoyed “a large audience there,” she said.

Pressman graduated from the Columbia School of Journalism. The New York State Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame inductee started working at WRCA radio in 1954. He went to WRCA’S television side, now WNBC, in 1956. In 1972, Pressman moved to WNEW-TV. He rejoined WNBC in 1980.

And ever since then, “Gabe was still coming to work and thinking about the next story,” Lerner said. On 17 March he covered the city’s St Patrick’s Day Parade.

Survivors include wife Vera, four children, eight grandchildren and a great-grandchild. © New York Times 2017. Distributed by NYT Syndication Service