Legendary Foreign Correspondent Chris Dickey Dies in Paris

[Dennis Donovan]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/legendary-foreign-correspondent-chris-dickey-dies-in-paris



Barbie Latza Nadeau
Correspondent-At-Large

Updated Jul. 16, 2020 7:14PM ET / Published Jul. 16, 2020 6:18PM ET

The hardest thing about writing an obituary for Chris Dickey, the legendary foreign correspondent and my friend and colleague for more than 25 years, is not having him edit it. He would have invariably found a better way for me to clumsily try to express how truly inspirational he was to a whole generation of journalists he wanted only to see succeed. Or he would have surely wanted just a little bit more focus on his heroic past as a war correspondent, or to point out how great a grandfather he was, which was a surprising new role for him that he thoroughly embraced. We would have likely argued about finer points and then agreed that he was right.

Writing this without the crutch of knowing he’ll just smooth out the rough parts is truly difficult in so many ways. Chris, The Daily Beast’s foreign editor, died suddenly in Paris at the age of 68. He is survived by his beloved wife Carol, his son James, three grandchildren and his sister Bronwen and brother Kevin.

I met Chris in 1997 when he was the Paris editor for Newsweek Magazine and I was a new hire in Rome. We covered a lot of Italy stories together and he would come to Rome and meet high-level sources and diplomats he happened to know here on the side of whatever else we were doing. When we covered the CIA’s capture of an Egyptian cleric off of a street in Milan, I was chasing down phone numbers while he was already having an aperitivo with the source I was trying to track down. “Yes, I’m sitting here with Chris,” I recall an Italian secret service agent telling me on one occasion when I finally got the number. I could hear Chris chuckling in the background. “We’ve been waiting for you to call. Why don’t you meet us?” That was classic Chris, a great writer and skilled editor, but he was truly the best beat reporter I ever met — friends to spymasters and sheikhs, cardinals and cops, insurgents and intellectuals — and all he ever wanted was for anyone he mentored to try to beat him to a source.

Among the most memorable stories we covered together were interviewing Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whom he secretly admired, in his palatial palace in Rome, and covering the death and funeral of Pope John Paul II and the election of Benedict XVI, the latter of which is when I can say I truly met him. He had done a TV appearance for Fox News on the legacy of John Paul II and they had neglected to put filters on the lights and literally burned his corneas. He called me at 2 a.m. and apologetically asked me to come to his hotel room to take him to the emergency room.

</snip>

Cross gently, Mr Dickey.

[Polly Hennessey]

1. I am truly saddened by this news.

Enjoyed his segments from Paris.

[spanone]

2. ...

[AwakeAtLast]

3. Brian Williams had a good segment about him

I didn't know of him, but now wish I had. RIP

[renate]

4. This saddens me so much, ever since Brian Williams' piece

I’m not usually *deeply* saddened by a famous person’s death, but this has really been upsetting me.

He was so elegant and so distinguished. So smart and so eloquent. I always, always stopped what I was doing to watch him. This makes me really sad. I’m glad, however, that he lived his life so well.

[octoberlib]

5. His father was James Dickey, who was

poet laureate and the writer of Deliverance.

[Buckeyeblue]

11. Yes. A great poet and Deliverance is a beautifully written novel

Chris wrote a really good book about life with his dad. While his dad was an amazing poet, he was not a particularly good person.

[octoberlib]

12. I just read the NYT article on his death.

Chris Dickey wrote that his father was an abusive alcoholic and was one of the reasons he wanted to be a foreign correspondent. He wanted to get far, far away. I’ll have to read the book.

[JI7]

6. He just posted like 15 hours ago

It feels so weird how someone can be so alive and here and then suddenly gone .

[Dennis Donovan]

7. I read one of his his last tweets Wed night

...just like I read Carl Reiner's last tweet the night before he died.

Yeah, it's very strange to read a tweet and then hear of their author's sudden death.

[OnDoutside]

8. Very sad news. I always stopped to listen to him, whenever he was on MSNBC.Ar ais de go raibh a anam

Literally: At right-hand-side of-god may be his soul faithful.

[moondust]

9. Damn.

Have appreciated his seasoned commentary many times the past few years as he was a frequent panelist on France24's "The Debate" with François Picard. He will be missed.

[FakeNoose]

10. Recommended

This is an amazing and loving tribute to one of America's best career journalists.

The entire eulogy (link in op) has much more information.
Thank you Chris Dickey for your many years of wonderful stories!