After making a fortune on Wall Street, he bought The Nation magazine and founded The New York Observer, which one writer called a “maypole of Manhattan gossip and intrigue.” Source: New York Times
Posts published in “Deaths (Obituaries)”
John Noble Wilford, Times Reporter Who Covered the Moon Landing, Dies at 92
By Gotham Rex on December 8, 2025
He gave readers a comprehensive and lyrical account of the historic mission in 1969. His science coverage as a Pulitzer-winning journalist and an author took him around the world. Source: New York Times
Robert B. Fiske Jr., First to Lead Whitewater Investigation, Dies at 94
By Gotham Rex on December 6, 2025
He had overseen high-profile cases as a private lawyer and a U.S. attorney in New York when he was named to examine the role of Bill and Hillary Clinton in a failed development venture. Source: New York Times
Mel Leipzig, Painter Called the ‘Chekhov of Trenton,’ Dies at 90
By Gotham Rex on December 3, 2025
He put fellow New Jerseyans at the center of his work, and a critic praised the “mysterious emotional tensions” in his pictures of ordinary people. Source: New York Times
James Riches, Fire Chief Who Lost Firefighter Son on 9/11, Dies at 74
By Gotham Rex on November 30, 2025
He spent months searching the wreckage of the World Trade Center for his son’s remains, then suffered lung illnesses attributed to toxic dust. Source: New York Times
David Lerner, a Mr. Fix-it of Apple Computers, Dies at 72
By Gotham Rex on November 26, 2025
He and a partner founded Tekserve, a Manhattan emergency room for frozen hard drives, keyboards, screens and their confounded owners. Source: New York Times
Dorothy Vogel, Librarian With a Vast Art Collection, Dies at 90
By Gotham Rex on November 22, 2025
On modest civil servants’ salaries, she and her husband amassed a trove of some 4,000 works by art-world luminaries, storing them in their one-bedroom Manhattan apartment. Source: New York Times
Terry Martin Hekker, a Happy Housewife Scorned, Dies at 92
By Gotham Rex on November 22, 2025
She wrote two popular memoirs: the first about the joys of married life, the second about her husband serving her divorce papers on their 40th anniversary. Source: New York Times
Arline Bronzaft, Who Campaigned for a Quieter City, Dies at 89
By Gotham Rex on November 12, 2025
She studied the impact of noise on health and classroom learning and helped impose stricter regulations in New York City. Source: New York Times
Lorinda de Roulet, Who Briefly Led the New York Mets, Dies at 95
By Gotham Rex on November 12, 2025
A daughter of Joan Whitney Payson, the team’s exuberant first owner, she took over as chairwoman in 1978 during a lackluster time for the franchise. Source: New York Times
Arthur Waskow, 92, Influential Rabbi and Activist for Social Justice, Dies
By Gotham Rex on October 25, 2025
Through more than two dozen books and two organizations he helped start, he had a profound impact on the intellectual and political life of Jewish congregations in the United States. Source: New York Times
Stephanie Johnson, Burlesque Dancer With Stories to Tell, Dies at 81
By Gotham Rex on October 21, 2025
Her memories of her days as Tanqueray in the gritty New York of the 1960s and ’70s found a new audience in recent years and made her a social media star. Source: New York Times
Manuel Trujillo, Who Helped New Yorkers Heal After 9/11, Dies at 80
By Gotham Rex on October 18, 2025
As Bellevue Hospital’s director of psychiatry, he guided rescue workers and grieving families through trauma when terrorists attacked in 2001. Source: New York Times
Toby Talbot, Impassioned Promoter of Art Films, Dies at 96
By Gotham Rex on October 13, 2025
With her husband, Dan, she ran four theaters in Manhattan and a company that distributed foreign and independent classics. Source: New York Times
Margaret Markey, Who Championed Victims of Sexual Abuse, Dies at 83
By Gotham Rex on October 3, 2025
As a New York State assemblywoman, she began a campaign that finally bore fruit in 2019, when the Legislature extended the deadlines for victims to file claims. Source: New York Times