Gregory Katz, AP journalist, dies at 67

NEW YORK » Gregory Katz, an acclaimed correspondent for The Associated Press in London who recently led the news cooperative’s coverage of Brexit and the election of Boris Johnson as prime minister, died Tuesday. He had been ill in recent months and had contracted COVID-19. He was 67.

His career over four decades took him across the globe, from Latin America to Africa, Asia to Russia, the Middle East and Western Europe. He was part of the team in 1994 that won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting at the Dallas Morning News for a series on violence against women around the world.

“In the male-oriented world of Mexico, where vio- lent crimes against women are often winked at and condoned, the tropical city of Juchitan offers sanctuary to women who want to live without worrying about being raped or assaulted on the streets,” Katz wrote in a counterintuitive piece for the series.

“The reason: This is a city where women rule.”

A native of Westport, Connecticut, Katz also wrote frequently about music, particularly his lifelong passion for rock ‘n’ roll. He was the only journalist inside the Dakota Apartments on the night in 1980 when John Lennon was murdered and wrote a definitive account of the killing for Rolling Stone magazine.

He recalled how as a ponytailed teenager still in high school, he had hitchhiked to the Woodstock music festival, sleeping on the muddy ground and drinking in the historic rock concert.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Gregory Katz, acting London bureau chief for The Associated Press, stands in front of St. George’s Chapel May 19, 2018, in Windsor near London, while covering the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Katz died June 23. He was 67.