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Fred Hiatt, Washington Post editorial page editor, dies at 66
One of the smartest people I knew, and also one of the kindest. A really wonderful man
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Obituaries
Fred Hiatt, Washington Post editorial page editor, dies at 66
By Matt Schudel
Today at 12:32 p.m. EST
Fred Hiatt, a onetime foreign correspondent who in 2000 became The Washington Post’s editorial page editor and greatly expanded the global reach of the newspaper’s opinion writers in the era of 9/11, the election of Barack Obama and the destabilizing presidency of Donald Trump, died Dec. 6 at a hospital in New York City. He was 66.
He had sudden cardiac arrest on Nov. 24 while visiting his daughter in Brooklyn, said his wife, Margaret “Pooh” Shapiro, and did not regain consciousness. He had been treated for heart ailments in the past.
Mr. Hiatt was one of Washington’s most authoritative and influential opinion-makers. For two decades, he either wrote or edited nearly every unsigned editorial published by The Post — more than 1,000 a year — and edited the opinion columns published on the paper’s op-ed page and website. He also wrote a column and was a three-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in editorial writing.
{snip}
Mr. Hiatt joined the editorial page in 1996, after 15 years as a Post reporter covering regional politics and national security and serving as a correspondent in Tokyo and Moscow. In 2000, he took over the editorial page after the death of Meg Greenfield, who had guided the section for two decades, and an interim period when it was led by Stephen S. Rosenfeld.
Mr. Hiatt inherited a staff of about a dozen people whose cloistered, quasi-judicial manner of working had changed little in decades. They mulled over the issues of the day and prepared unsigned editorials that reflected the newspaper’s institutional views on matters from presidential elections to foreign affairs to local politics and education.
{snip}
Three-time Pulitzer finalist
Frederick Samuel Hiatt was born April 30, 1955, in Washington and grew up in Brookline, Mass. His father was a medical researcher who became dean of the Harvard School of Public Health. His mother was a librarian.
As a student at Harvard, Mr. Hiatt wrote for the campus newspaper, the Crimson. After graduating in 1977, he worked for the Atlanta Journal and the old Washington Star. He joined The Post in 1981, after the Star folded, and initially covered Fairfax County, Va., and politics in Richmond.
He and Shapiro, his wife, went to Tokyo in 1987 as co-bureau chiefs, then in 1991 assumed similar roles in Moscow.
{snip}
In addition to his wife of 37 years, of Chevy Chase, Md., Mr. Hiatt’s survivors include three children, Alexandra Hiatt of Brooklyn, Joseph Hiatt of San Francisco and Nathaniel Hiatt of New Haven, Conn.; his father, Howard Hiatt of Cambridge, Mass.; a brother; a sister; and a granddaughter.
{snip}
By Matt Schudel
Matt Schudel has been an obituary writer at The Washington Post since 2004. He previously worked for publications in Washington, New York, North Carolina and Florida. Twitter https://twitter.com/MattSchudel
Fred Hiatt, Washington Post editorial page editor, dies at 66
By Matt Schudel
Today at 12:32 p.m. EST
Fred Hiatt, a onetime foreign correspondent who in 2000 became The Washington Post’s editorial page editor and greatly expanded the global reach of the newspaper’s opinion writers in the era of 9/11, the election of Barack Obama and the destabilizing presidency of Donald Trump, died Dec. 6 at a hospital in New York City. He was 66.
He had sudden cardiac arrest on Nov. 24 while visiting his daughter in Brooklyn, said his wife, Margaret “Pooh” Shapiro, and did not regain consciousness. He had been treated for heart ailments in the past.
Mr. Hiatt was one of Washington’s most authoritative and influential opinion-makers. For two decades, he either wrote or edited nearly every unsigned editorial published by The Post — more than 1,000 a year — and edited the opinion columns published on the paper’s op-ed page and website. He also wrote a column and was a three-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in editorial writing.
{snip}
Mr. Hiatt joined the editorial page in 1996, after 15 years as a Post reporter covering regional politics and national security and serving as a correspondent in Tokyo and Moscow. In 2000, he took over the editorial page after the death of Meg Greenfield, who had guided the section for two decades, and an interim period when it was led by Stephen S. Rosenfeld.
Mr. Hiatt inherited a staff of about a dozen people whose cloistered, quasi-judicial manner of working had changed little in decades. They mulled over the issues of the day and prepared unsigned editorials that reflected the newspaper’s institutional views on matters from presidential elections to foreign affairs to local politics and education.
{snip}
Three-time Pulitzer finalist
Frederick Samuel Hiatt was born April 30, 1955, in Washington and grew up in Brookline, Mass. His father was a medical researcher who became dean of the Harvard School of Public Health. His mother was a librarian.
As a student at Harvard, Mr. Hiatt wrote for the campus newspaper, the Crimson. After graduating in 1977, he worked for the Atlanta Journal and the old Washington Star. He joined The Post in 1981, after the Star folded, and initially covered Fairfax County, Va., and politics in Richmond.
He and Shapiro, his wife, went to Tokyo in 1987 as co-bureau chiefs, then in 1991 assumed similar roles in Moscow.
{snip}
In addition to his wife of 37 years, of Chevy Chase, Md., Mr. Hiatt’s survivors include three children, Alexandra Hiatt of Brooklyn, Joseph Hiatt of San Francisco and Nathaniel Hiatt of New Haven, Conn.; his father, Howard Hiatt of Cambridge, Mass.; a brother; a sister; and a granddaughter.
{snip}
By Matt Schudel
Matt Schudel has been an obituary writer at The Washington Post since 2004. He previously worked for publications in Washington, New York, North Carolina and Florida. Twitter https://twitter.com/MattSchudel
https://twitter.com/hiattf
Fred Hiatt
@hiattf
@WashingtonPost
editorial page editor. | http://wapo.st/1nn8T4I
Washington, D.C. | washingtonpost.com/opinions | Joined January 2009
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