Bob Simon was the consummate parachutist, an expert in crisis journalism, who covered wars in Asia, the Middle East, and Central America. When I visited him in his Tel Aviv office in 1992, he had just finished writing a book about his capture by the Iraqis during the 1991 Gulf War. He seemed restless. I said, “It’s only been four months since the last crisis [Moscow, December].” He shrugged, “Hey, we’re talking news.” From my first interviews with foreign correspondents in Paris in 1983, when talking about dangerous places, the common theme was always luck. Being lucky or unlucky.
Bob Simon died yesterday when a livery cab cashed near West 30th Street in Manhattan.
He had marvelously brought us the news for nearly 50 years.
