Jim Sheeler, Pulitzer-winning journalist who honored fallen troops, dies at 53

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David Fahrenthold Retweeted

A nice obituary for the man who revolutionized obituaries by turning them into life stories.

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Jim Sheeler, Pulitzer-winning journalist who honored fallen troops, dies at 53
He wrote richly detailed obituaries but was best known for “Final Salute,” an article and book about a U.S. Marine who helped comfort the families of troops killed in Iraq.
washingtonpost.com

Obituaries

Jim Sheeler, Pulitzer-winning journalist who honored fallen troops, dies at 53



Rocky Mountain News reporter Jim Sheeler in 2006, on the morning he won the Pulitzer Prize in feature writing. He visited Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver to honor some of the fallen Marines he wrote about in his article. (Todd Heisler)

By Harrison Smith
September 24, 2021 at 9:32 a.m. EDT

When Jim Sheeler started writing obituaries in 1996, the job was considered among the worst in journalism, a Siberia for wayward reporters. “I saw journalists at my own newspaper punished: ‘Obits for you for the next six months,’ ” he later recalled.

For Mr. Sheeler, the assignment was far from a chore. As he leafed through death notices faxed by local funeral homes, typing out obituaries for the Boulder Planet in Colorado, certain details would catch his eye. “There was one in particular that listed the woman’s occupation: florist and butcher,” he said. “I loved that, and I thought: ‘I wish I would have known her. I wish I could have written about her.’ And then I realized I still could.”

Over the next few years, Mr. Sheeler wrote evocative, richly detailed obits of farmers, ranchers, magicians, restaurateurs — preferably anyone whose name had never appeared in print. Combining a lean, understated prose style with an insistence on patient, in-person reporting, he helped shake up the traditional obituary form and established himself as one of the country’s leading chroniclers of ordinary people.

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Mr. Sheeler, who died Sept. 17 at age 53, went on to spend a year shadowing Marine Maj. Steve Beck, who was tasked with honoring his fallen comrades by delivering the news to their families, supervising funerals and helping them cope with their loss. The resulting article, “Final Salute,” was a searing 12,000-word exploration of grief, sacrifice and brotherhood, with photographs by Todd Heisler. Both men were honored with Pulitzer Prizes in 2006, with Mr. Sheeler winning the feature-writing award.

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Mr. Sheeler, right, and photographer Todd Heisler, center, congratulate each other after it was announced that they had each won a Pulitzer for “Final Salute.” (Ed Andrieski/AP)

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Mr. Sheeler said he often agonized over his stories, staying up all night to write and sometimes tucking his notebook under his pillow when he went to sleep. “Final Salute” was especially arduous: “It absolutely tore me up inside,” he told Deadbeat, an obituary website. He started teaching at the University of Colorado while writing the book, and later invited Beck to speak to his classes at Case Western Reserve.

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By Harrison Smith
Harrison Smith is a reporter on The Washington Post's obituaries desk. Since joining the obituaries section in 2015, he has profiled big-game hunters, fallen dictators and Olympic champions. He sometimes covers the living as well, and previously co-founded the South Side Weekly, a community newspaper in Chicago. Twitter https://twitter.com/harrisondsmith