Bay Area News Group reporter Peter Hegarty dies at 56
Peter Hegarty lived many lives: a journalist, an accomplished book collector, a passionate father and for years a resourceful guide to locals who walked into the Alameda Journal newspaper’s offices, looking for help.
It is Hegarty’s gracious, thoughtful demeanor that friends and family members remember most following his death late last month at the age of 56.
The Oakland native and son of Irish immigrants spent almost his entire career as a Bay Area News Group reporter, joining the Alameda Journal in 1996 and fostering a strong relationship with the community over thousands of local stories.
At the time of his death, he was a reporter for the East Bay Times, writing with a tireless ethic about local ongoings in Alameda, Hayward and San Leandro, as well as the Lafayette, Moraga and Orinda area.
Hegarty was just as committed in his personal life, investing his time and energy in his son’s Eagle Scout projects and filling his home with “at least 1,000 books” on topics ranging from Irish history to 1950s pulp fiction, said his wife, Margaret Cadogan.
“He was a very gracious, sensitive person,” Cadogan said. “Very beloved, very generous and very smart.”
Born Sept. 10, 1965, Hegarty grew up in Oakland and attended Bishop O’Dowd High School. As editor of the student newspaper at Laney College, Hegarty turned out enough impressive work to be hired at the East Bay Express.
At the Alameda Journal, Hegarty wrote an endless number of features about everyday pillars of the community — veterans, public servants, small-business owners.
Colleagues remember Hegarty’s fascination with stories involving local history, as well as his command of all things World War II. He especially valued writing about the ship Hornet, diligently and colorfully documenting the Alameda museum ship’s long history and extensive restoration efforts.
Jon Kawamoto, a former editor at the Alameda Journal, said Hegarty seemed to know everyone around town — from city officials and firefighters to restaurant owners and community leaders. He called Hegarty’s death an “incalculable loss” for the East Bay.
“He treated everyone with respect,” Kawamoto said in an email. “Because of his word and integrity, they all trusted him.”
Around the Journal’s office, Hegarty became known as the go-to resource when local residents would stop by to ask about a certain past story or obituary. Putting his large workload on hold, he would dive through volumes of past newspaper archives and make a copy for the reader in need.
“Talk about going above and beyond, right?” said Nate Jackson, who sat next to Hegarty at the Journal for many years. “Peter just saw his job as being about serving the public, and that’s part of what he was there to do as a journalist.”
It was not as a journalist, however, but as an activist that Hegarty met his wife. Both were volunteers with the advocacy group Irish Northern Aid’s Bay Area chapter — an organization Hegarty eventually chaired — and raised money to support families of political prisoners in Northern Ireland.
The two were fierce advocates for Irish independence and helped facilitate the first visit to the Bay Area by politician Gerry Adams, an influential leader for the Irish Republican Army, in 1995.
Hegarty also authored Irish Northern Aid’s weekly newsletter, using his vast literature collection to inform deeply researched editorials about the Irish struggle, according to a fellow advocate.
“Peter was the intellect of our organization,” said Ciaran Scally, who also chaired the Bay Area chapter. “A lot of us were immigrant construction workers, but he had the talents of using the typewriter and getting our message out there. To do stuff like that, he was dedicated — he gave up a lot of time from his private life.”
It was a surprise to Hegarty’s son, Emmet, to learn as a child that not everyone’s house resembled a living library the way his father’s did.
Emmet, now a political science major at UC Riverside, remembered his father’s enthusiastic pride when, as an Eagle Scout, he helped build a parklet in Berkeley.
“He was very quiet, and didn’t like to be the center of attention,” Emmet said of his father. “Whenever he would have a conversation with somebody, he’d make it about the other person and got everybody else talking about what they were doing. If there were ever a group photo, he would always be the guy taking the photo.”
In his later years, Hegarty remained a “reporter’s reporter,” his former colleague Jackson remembered, the kind who would file through large workloads with a passion for telling stories.
“Peter was an unassuming community reporter who simply was a consummate pro,” Kawamoto said in an email. “And, knowing the quiet and shy side of Peter, I think he’d prefer it that way.”