Jim Dwyer, longtime chronicler of New York City, dies at 63

NEW YORK >> Jim Dwyer, an award-winning news reporter and columnist who spent almost four decades telling New York City’s stories, has died. He was 63.

Dwyer died Thursday at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan of complications from lung cancer, said Dean Baquet, executive editor of The New York Times, in an email to the staff of the paper where Dwyer had worked for almost 20 years.

A New York City native, Dwyer spent time at New York Newsday and the Daily News before joining the

Times in May 2001. He covered the biggest stories of the day throughout his career, from the 1993 bombing at the World Trade Center to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to the coronavirus pandemic.

While at Newsday, he won two Pulitzer Prizes, one for his commentary and the other as part of a team covering spot news.

He was a columnist for the Times as well, taking over the “About New York” column in 2007. His last column was May 26, writing about the disruption of the pandemic.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo called Dwyer, whom he said he had known for 30 years, “a great New Yorker and a powerful voice.”

‘He was brilliant’

“Jim Dwyer was about the discovery of the truth, and he was brilliant,” Cuomo said, adding that Dwyer had “the ability to connect with New Yorkers, to take complicated subjects, find the truth and then communicate it to New Yorkers in a way they understood.”

Survivors include his wife, two daughters and three brothers.