Longtime AP journalist, newspaper writer John Brewer dies at age 76 | EUROtoday

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John Brewer, whose coast-to-coast journalism profession spanned 50 years, together with practically twenty years at The Associated Press, has died. He was 76.

Brewer and his longtime buddy Randy Johnson had been on their annual fly fishing journey in Montana on Friday when the boat Brewer was in hit a submerged log and flipped over, Johnson mentioned. Two others had been rescued, however Brewer drowned, he mentioned.

“I’m still having trouble digesting it,” he said Saturday.

Brewer retired in 2015 after nearly 18 years as editor and publisher of the Peninsula Daily News in Port Angeles. Current publisher Eran Kennedy remembered him Saturday as “a true journalist and editor at heart” and “a person of unwavering integrity, driven by a passion for community and local journalism.”

“We are profoundly saddened by the unexpected loss of John Brewer. On behalf of the Peninsula Daily News family, I extend our heartfelt condolences to John’s loved ones,” Kennedy mentioned in an e-mail. “We will carry forward his torch, ensuring that his memory lives on.”

Born on Oct. 24, 1947, Brewer received his begin in journalism writing for his highschool newspaper, mentioned his spouse, Barbara Wise. His first paid job was with a weekly paper in his hometown of Upland, California. From 1969-1988, he was a reporter, bureau chief and government for The Associated Press in Seattle, Los Angeles and New York.

As Seattle bureau chief, he oversaw protection of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, which killed 57 folks, blasted greater than 1,300 ft (400 meters) off the highest of the volcano and rained ash for miles round. In Los Angeles, he oversaw protection of the 1984 Summer Olympics, and earlier than that, had a pivotal interplay with a future star. Actor Mark Hamill, of “Star Wars” fame, labored for Brewer as a duplicate boy within the Seventies earlier than informing him he was leaving as a result of he had been solid in an episode of “The Partridge Family.”

“And so ended my AP career,” Hamill wrote on the social platform X, in 2022.

In 1985, Brewer employed Jeff Wilson as a reporter in Los Angeles. Wilson labored the in a single day shift and did not anticipate to see his boss a lot, however Brewer ceaselessly confirmed up, strolling up behind him and declaring, “Good job, Tiger!”

“It was a warm, needed moment in the dead of night,” Wilson mentioned in an e-mail. When Wilson retired 11 years in the past, Brewer despatched him a Pacific Northwest salmon.

“More than a boss, I considered John a friend,” he mentioned.

Brewer additionally spent 10 years as president, chief government officer and editor-in-chief of The New York Times Syndication Sales Corp. In addition to dealing with trademark and merchandise licensing for the newspaper, he additionally enlisted high-profile columnists, together with Mikhail Gorbachev, Martha Stewart and Jimmy Carter, for the Times’ syndicate, in line with an autobiographical weblog publish he printed in 2016.

In Port Angeles, Brewer was deeply concerned in his group, holding positions with a number of civic organizations. Johnson, who remembered him pounding nails to assist assemble a brand new playground, mentioned his buddy was guided by the notion, “How can I do something to help this community?”

“He was just a really great person. Even when he retired, he didn’t miss a beat, because he cared,” he mentioned. “He knew he could make a difference.”

Brewer and Wise married in September after 18 years, she mentioned Saturday.

“He was the nicest, most generous man. He helped everybody he could,” she mentioned.

Wise described her husband as one thing of a statesman of their small city, typically wanted by budding politicians for recommendation as a result of he knew everybody. In retirement, he spent hours a day on Facebook and on-line group teams spreading the phrase about group occasions, she mentioned.

“He was the consummate news guy,” she mentioned. “He just wanted his community to know what was going on because so many people had stopped taking the paper.”

Brewer is also survived by two sons. Funeral preparations haven’t been set.