The New York Times - USA (2020-08-06)

THE NEW YORK TIMES OBITUARIESTHURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 2020 Y A21

Pete Hamill, a streetwise son of
Brooklyn who turned a gift for sto-
rytelling, a fascination with char-
acters and a romance with tabloid
newspapers into a storied career
as a New York journalist, novelist
and essayist for more than a half
century, died on Wednesday in the
borough of his birth. He was 85.
The writer Denis Hamill, his
brother, said Mr. Hamill had fallen
at his home in Brooklyn on Satur-
day after returning from receiving
dialysis and was in intensive care
at Methodist Hospital there when
“his kidneys and heart failed him.”
In another age, when the news-
rooms of metropolitan dailies
pulsed to the rising thunder of
typewriters on deadline, Mr. Ham-
ill, a high school dropout who was
searching for a future after years
of academic frustration, Navy life
and graphic design work, walked
into the city room of The New York
Post in 1960, as he told it, and fell
in love with newspapering.
“The room was more exciting to
me than any movie,” he recalled in
a memoir, “an organized chaos of
editors shouting from desks, copy
boys dashing through doors into
the composing room, men and
women typing at big manual type-
writers, telephones ringing, the
wire service tickers clattering, ev-
eryone smoking and putting butts
out on the floor.”
Mr. Hamill became a celebrated
reporter, columnist and the top ed-
itor of The New York Post and The
Daily News; a foreign correspon-
dent for The Post and The Satur-
day Evening Post; and a writer for
New York Newsday, The Village
Voice, Esquire and other publica-
tions. He wrote a score of books,
mostly novels but also biogra-
phies, collections of short stories
and essays, and screenplays,
some adapted from his books.
He was a quintessential New
Yorker — savvy about its ways,
empathetic with its masses and
enthralled with its diversity —
and wrote about it in a literature of
journalism. Along with Jimmy
Breslin, he popularized a spare,
blunt style in columns of on-the-
scene reporting in the authentic
voice of the working classes: blus-
tery, sardonic, often angry. When
riots erupted in Brooklyn in 1971,
he wrote in The Post:
“If people say nothing can be
done about Brownsville, they lie.
If this country would stop its ir-
rational nonsense and get to work,
every Brownsville would be gone
in five years. Get the hell out of
Asia. Stop feeding dictators. For-
get about airports, SSTs, Albany
Malls, highways. This country can
do anything. And if Brownsville
stays the way it is for another
year, someone sleek and fat and
comfortable should go to jail.”
He idolized Hemingway and
covered wars in Vietnam,
Nicaragua, Lebanon and North-
ern Ireland. He lived in Dublin,
Barcelona, Mexico City, Saigon,
San Juan, Rome and Tokyo. But
his roots were in New York, where
he pounded out stories about mur-
ders, strikes, the World Series,
championship fights, jazz or poli-
tics, and then got drunk after work
with buddies at the Lion’s Head in
Greenwich Village.
His presence at crises was un-
canny. In 1968, he was steps away
from his friend Senator Robert F.
Kennedy in Los Angeles on the
night Kennedy was assassinated
and helped subdue the killer,
Sirhan B. Sirhan. On Sept. 11, 2001,
he was blocks away when terror-
ists attacked the World Trade Cen-
ter, killing thousands, then de-
scribed it in The Daily News.
Unlike most print journalists,
Mr. Hamill was a bona fide New
York celebrity, featured in gossip
columns squiring Jacqueline Ken-

nedy Onassis, Shirley MacLaine

or Linda Ronstadt; promoting his

books on television; pho-

tographed at society charity

events or imbibing with the glit-

terati at parties. His friends in-

cluded Norman Mailer, Jules Feif-

fer and Jack Lemmon.

In a tuxedo at a gallery opening

or in shirt sleeves at the city desk,

he looked like a fighter: a muscu-

lar, grizzled, chain-smoking ra-

conteur who told stories in a

whiskey baritone of growing up in

a big Irish family in Brooklyn, of

newsmen he had known, stories

he had covered and characters he

had met around the world — grist

for the novels he churned out,

sometimes holing up for weeks

and working around the clock.

He was widely respected in

newspaper circles, not only for his

innovative writing and advocacy

of underdogs, but for promoting

higher tabloid news standards

and for standing up to publishers

in squabbles over pay and treat-

ment of employees and his own

autonomy as an editor.

His first crack at running a

newsroom came in 1993, when Pe-

ter S. Kalikow, who had bought

The Post from Rupert Murdoch in

1988, went bankrupt. Steven Hof-

fenberg, a shady financier who

later went to jail, secured control

and asked Mr. Hamill to become

editor in chief and rescue the

shaky paper. He was enthusiastic

about it, had fresh ideas, and

seemed a perfect choice to resus-

citate the patient. He would also

write a column.

But he had three conditions:

restoration of a 20 percent pay cut

recently imposed on the staff,

money to hire more reporters, and

absolute editorial autonomy. Mr.

Hoffenberg agreed. A month later,

however, Abraham Hirschfeld, a

buffoonish parking lot mogul who

knew nothing about newspapers,

won a court case to buy The Post.

He fired Mr. Hamill. The staff

mutinied, publishing an entire edi-

tion filled with scathing pieces

about the new owner. Mr. Hamill

was rehired with a big, wet

Hirschfeld kiss. Later, in his own

protest over staff dismissals, he

briefly edited the paper from a

nearby diner. New Yorkers rel-

ished the uproar, but the turmoil

ended when Mr. Murdoch bought

The Post back and terminated Mr.

Hamill.

In 1997, he got another chance,

this time at The Daily News. Mor-

timer Zuckerman, the owner,

hired him to replace a British edi-

tor who had turned it from a

brash, tough-guy paper into a tat-

tler of celebrity gossip and super-

market tabloid stunts to compete

with The Post.

Mr. Hamill refocused on city

news, covering immigrants, eth-

nic communities, Russian mob-

sters and infrastructure prob-

lems. He serialized Mailer’s novel

“The Gospel According to the

Son.” Circulation fell, and Mr.

Hamill clashed with Mr. Zucker-

man, but staffers said he brought

glamour, collegiality and respect-

ability to the paper. More than 100

of them signed a letter urging Mr.

Zuckerman to retain him. “He’s a

mensch,” said JoAnne Wasser-

man, a reporter. But after eight

months, he resigned under pres-

sure.

Mr. Hamill became nationally

known for articles in Vanity Fair,

Esquire, New York and other

magazines, and for books. His

first novel, “A Killing for Christ”

(1968), spun a plot to assassinate

the pope. “Pete Hamill is set on

ripping the lid off the rotten

church, the rotten upper classes,

the rotten rightists,” John Casey

wrote in a not entirely favorable

review in The New York Times.

Most of his fiction was set in

New York, including “The Gift”

(1973) and “Snow in August”

(1997), both of which drew on his

youth; “Forever” (2003), the

story of a man granted immortal-

ity as long as he never leaves the

island of Manhattan; “North

River” (2007), a Depression-era

tale of a man and his grandson;

and “Tabloid City” (2011), a stop-

the-presses murder yarn.

More than 100 Hamill short

stories ran in a Post series called

“The Eight Million” and in a Daily

News series, “Tales of New York.”

His story collections, “The Invisi-

ble City: A New York Sketchbook”

(1980), and “Tokyo Sketches”

(1992), were hailed by Publishers

Weekly: “His simple themes of

love, loss, longing and deception

are joined to powerful emotions

and reveal a psychological bond”

between America and Japan.

William Peter Hamill Jr. was

born in Brooklyn on June 24, 1935,

the eldest of seven children of

Billy and Anne (Devlin) Hamill,

immigrants from Belfast, North-

ern Ireland. His mother was a

cashier at a movie theater and a

midwife in the maternity ward of

Methodist Hospital, and his father,

who lost a leg in a soccer accident,

was often unemployed but some-

times worked in a factory.

Pete went to a Roman Catholic

school and delivered The Brook-

lyn Eagle. Fascinated with comic

books, he began drawing. He at-

tended Regis High School in Man-

hattan, another Catholic institu-

tion, but dropped out in his second

year to work at the Brooklyn Navy

Yard. In 1952, he joined the Navy.

Discharged in 1956, he studied at

the Pratt Institute in New York

and at Mexico City College.

Back in New York in 1957, he be-

came a graphic designer for three

years, but his future remained

cloudy. Then a letter to James

Wechsler, editor of The New York

Post, got him a tryout as a report-

er, even though he had no daily

journalistic experience. He was

hired, got drunk in celebration

and was soon writing prizewin-

ning articles.

In 1962, he married Ramona Ne-

gron. They had two daughters,

Adrienne and Deirdre, and were

divorced in 1970. In 1987, he mar-

ried Fukiko Aoki, a Japanese jour-

nalist. In addition to his brother

Denis, a journalist, novelist and

screenwriter, she survives him, as

do three other siblings — Kath-

leen Fischetti, a former editor for

U.S. Navy publications; Brian, a

photographer; and John, a

spokesman for the Federal Emer-

gency Management Agency —

along with his daughters and a

grandson.

He began writing magazine ar-

ticles during a 114-day New York

newspaper strike in 1962-63. He

moved to Spain, covering conflicts

in Ireland and Lebanon for The

Saturday Evening Post, but re-

joined The New York Post in 1965

and was its correspondent in Viet-

nam in 1966. Over the next four

decades, he wrote books and

produced thousands of columns

for The Post, The Daily News and

New York Newsday.

In at least one column, though

— for The Post, in April 1989 — he

got it egregiously wrong. A white

woman had been beaten and

raped while jogging in Central

Park, and the police were quick to

arrest what the press was calling a

“wolf pack” of Black and Latino

teenagers. Five youths were ar-

rested, convicted and imprisoned

before DNA tests implicating the

actual assailant exonerated them

years later.

But at the time of the attack, Mr.

Hamill, like many reporters cov-

ering the case, trusted what the

police had told him. In his column

he painted a menacing picture.

“They were coming downtown

from a world of crack, welfare,

guns, knives, indifference and ig-

norance,” he wrote of the young

men in custody. “They were com-

ing from a land with no fathers.”

He went on: “They were com-

ing from the anarchic province of

the poor. And driven by a col-

lective fury, brimming with the

rippling energies of youth, their

minds teeming with the violent

images of the streets and the mov-

ies, they had only one goal: to

smash, hurt, rob, stomp, rape. The

enemies were rich. The enemies

were white.”

The column became a focal

point of later examinations of the

contributing role that the news

media, and the tabloid press in

particular, had played in the rush

to judgment that put the so-called

Central Park Five behind bars.

Mr. Hamill wrote for films and

television shows and occasionally

appeared onscreen, usually — as

in “The Paper” (1994) and “The

Insider” (1999) — as himself or a

character very much like him. He

was prominently featured in Ric

Burns’s multipart 1999 TV docu-

mentary, “New York,” and he and

Jimmy Breslin were the subjects

of a 2018 documentary, “Breslin

and Hamill: Deadline Artists.”

His nonfiction included “Ir-

rational Ravings” (1971), “Piece-

work” (1996), “Why Sinatra Mat-

ters” (1998), “Diego Rivera”

(1999) and “Downtown, My Man-

hattan” (2004). His memoir, “A

Drinking Life” (1994), chronicled

decades of alcoholism, ending on

New Year’s Eve 1972, when he

took his last, a vodka and tonic.

Mr. Hamill won a Grammy

Award in 1976 for his notes on Bob

Dylan’s album “Blood on the

Tracks.” In 2014, he won a George

Polk Career Award for his lifetime

contributions to journalism. In re-

cent years he was a writer-in-resi-

dence at New York University.

For more than 30 years Mr.

Hamill had lived in TriBeCa, in

Lower Manhattan, where he loved

to take aimless walks. (He moved

back to Brooklyn in 2016.) “You

can just sit on a bench and look at

the harbor, or look at the people,”

he told The Times in 2013. “Like

being a flâneur. You can just wan-

der around and let the city dictate

the script.”

Pete Hamill, a New York Storyteller With a Storied Career, Is Dead at 85

By ROBERT D. McFADDEN

Julia Carmel contributed report-
ing.

Pete Hamill in March 1993 autographing a scathing edition of The New York Post that criticized its new owner, who briefly fired him.

FRED R. CONRAD/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Mr. Hamill in 2013 near his apartment in TriBeCa, where he loved to walk. “You can just wander

around,” he said, “and let the city dictate the script.” He moved back to his native Brooklyn in 2016.

DAVE SANDERS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

A high school dropout,

celebrated journalist

and 2014 George Polk

Career Award winner.

Allen, Arthur

Berenson, David

Clark, Alison

Hamill, Pete

Kissane, William

Porwick, Morton

Sekler, Marvin

Sindel, Alan

Sohn, Bernard

ALLEN—Arthur Yorke.

Caroline, MaryandPaul

Cronson and everybody at

Works &Processatthe

Guggenheim mourn the

death of Arthur Yorke Allen.

Arthur was a steadfast friend

and an enthusiastic supporter

of the arts. We offer Mary

Stewart, Loring and family

our love and very deepest

sympathy.

Caroline Cronson,

Producer;

Bart Friedman,

Chairman, Board of Trustees;

Duke Dang,

General Manager;

Kathryn Marshall,

Associate

BERENSON—David A.

Age 86, passed away peace-

fully at his home in Tequesta,

FL on August 2, 2020. His

professionaland personal

achievements were substan-

tial and impressive (Captain,

UnitedStatesAir Force;

Ernst&Young'sNational

Director of Tax Policy and

Legislative Services; lead

witnessbeforetheHouse,

Senate, Treasury and Joint

Congressional Committees

with regard to various tax

legislation; former Chairman

of the Board of Wolf Trap, the

U.S. National Park for the

Performing Arts in Washing-

ton, DC and United States

National Reporter for the In-

ternational Fiscal Association

(Cahiers du Droit Fiscal Inter-

nationale), author, professor

and so on and so forth. A tax

andfinancialgeniuswho

didn'tsufferfoolslightly,

what's most important to re-

member about David is that

he had a horrendous habit of

tellingawfuljokestohis

grandchildren, making break-

fast shakes usingfoods

leftover from the Cretaceous

Periodandcreativelyde-

scribing fish he imagined he

caught from time-to-time. He

was also, if we're going to be

truthful here, dangerous at a

barbequeunlessyouliked

your food well-charred. For-

tunately, it seemed that he

lost his taste buds in the Air

Force, so he never saw this

as a problem. He was also the

kindest friend, father, grand-

father and husband anyone

could ask for - protective and

supportive to a fault, in a way

no longer seen or appreciat-

ed in this country, unfortun-

ately.AnAmerican,and

proud of it. He taught his son

everything a son should know

and its hard to compliment a

man more than that. An avid

farmer, lover of all things

Western and a world traveler

with friends throughout the

world. But more than any-

thing else he loved his wife,

his children and his grand-

children. His life was so full it

almost defies belief and could

fill many books, but for those

whosurvivehim,wewill

forever miss his being here in

person. David is survived by

his wife Joan, his children

Daniel and Aimee, and

his grandchildren Josephine,

Asher and Levi. Donations

may be made to the Capt.

David A. Berenson Endow-

ment Fund at the Travis Mills

Foundation Veterans Retreat

or the JNF Tree Center.

CLARK—Alison Moore,

73,passedpeacefullysur-

rounded by her family on

July 29, 2020 at her home in

Ridgeland,SC.Alisonwas

born July 2, 1947, in Garden

City, NY, the third of eight

children of Roslin (Kennedy)

and Harry Moore. A graduate

of Dowling College, she re-

ceived her degree in Biology.

Alison was a devoted wife

and mother to her children,

known for her free-spirit, her

creativity and love of nature.

AnotedAnglicanBishop

described Alison as a “light-

house of joy and Godly good-

will to so many.” Her family

feels that was an understate-

ment.Shewaspassionate

about organizations that im-

pacted the poor and disen-

franchised. Alison is survived

byherhusband,PeterR.

Clark; her children, Will R.

(Moira E.) Clark and Eileen

A. (Harrison) Wilder; seven

grandchildren, and her five

brothers and sisters, in addi-

tion to numerous other rela-

tives.Aprivatememorial

service for Alison is to be held

on Martha's Vineyard in the

fall. In lieu of flowers, the fa-

mily requests that persons

wishing to honor Alison

may make a contribution to

Water Mission, PO Box 63320,

Charlotte, NC 28263-3320

(www.watermission.org).

Islandfuneralhome.com

HAMILL—Pete.

The SiluriansPress Club

notes with sadness the

passing of esteemed mem-

ber Pete Hamill, winner of

the club's 1989 Lifetime

Achievement Award and the

1992 Peter Kihss Award.

KISSANE—William J.,

(January 25, 1923 to August 3,

2020). William J. Kissane, Se-

nior Managing Partner and

leading executive of Commu-

nity Counselling Service Co,

Inc. (CCS) for more than 50

years, died Monday evening,

August 3rd at North Shore

University Hospital in Man-

hasset, NY. He was 97. Bill

was born on January 25th,

1923 in New York City. His

parents, William J. Kissane,

Sr. and Mary Garry raised

four children, Bill, Miriam, Pa-

tricia and Dorothy, after los-

ing twin boys, Richard and

James, in infancy. Bill attend-

edHolyCrossSchoolin

Times Square, the LaSalle

School on Second Avenue,

and received a BA from Man-

hattan College. He was

awarded an LLB from New

York Law School in 1949. Bill

enlisted in the US Army 1942,

serving in the 5th Air Force

during the World War II in

Australia, New Guinea, the

Philippines,andwas sta-

tioned on Okinawa at the

time of the Japanese surren-

der, September 2, 1945. He

joined CCS in 1952 and soon

becameVicePresidentof

Operations overseeing all

fundraising campaign opera-

tions for the firm. As a senior

executive, he was responsib-

le for designing some of the

most significant fundraising

campaigns for Catholic insti-

tutions in North America and

Western Europe. He coun-

selled every archbishop of

NewYorksince Cardinal

Spellman and advised Cardin-

als and bishops, university

presidents, andnon-profit

leaders throughout the Unit-

edStates,Canada,Ireland

and the United Kingdom for

fivedecades.Billmarried

Madeleine(Lynnie)Crilley

on August 5, 1953. They were

together in Auburndale and

Douglaston, New York for 42

years before Lynnie's death

in 1995. Bill is survived by his

sister Dorothy Nothofer;

eight of his children and their

spouses,CarolynandDan

Kane, Bob and Angela Kis-

sane, Mary Jean and Nestor

Rindone, Ann and Paul En-

gelhart,LawrenceKissane

and Maria Rodriguez, Katie

and Paul Viola, Thomas Kis-

sane and Shalini Mimani, and

MelanieandTonyChong,

and 16 loving grandchildren

and their spouses, Carolyn

Rindone and Matthew Hor-

owitz,LauraandMichael

Conway, and Nina Rindone,

Elisabeth Engelhart and Fe-

lix Albahae, Thomas Engel-

hart, Kaitlin Kissane and Ho-

beyKuhn,RyanKissane,

JohnPaoloViola,Joseph,

Lynnie and Lawrence Chong,

Leela and Priya Mimani Kis-

sane, Evan and Meghan Dan-

aher,William(Liam)and

Madeleine Kissane, and one

beautiful great -

granddaughter, Lucy Dana-

her.Bill and Lynnie were

especially devoted to their ol-

dest son, Billy, who was blind

from four years of age and

took extraordinary care of

him until his passing in 2002.

Due to the continued con-

cerns over COVID-19, the Kis-

sane family has elected to

forego a wake and will hold a

small, private funeral mass

for our immediate family. We

plan to hold an open celebra-

tion of Bill's life sometime in

the near future once condi-

tionsare safe and appro-

priate. To access Bill's me-

morial page, visit

fairchildsons.com/tribute/de

tails/2262/William - Kissane/o

bituary.html#tribute-start.If

you would like to make a con-

tributioninBill'smemory,

please consider: Guide Dog

Foundation for the Blind, Inc.,

Smithtown, NY guidedog.org

and The De La Salle School

Freeport, New York,

delasalleschool.org.

PORWICK—Morton,

88, passed away peacefully

on Saturday. He is survived

by Sandra, his wife of nearly

63 years, his daughters Nancy

Weiser, Evie Porwick, Julie

Warshaw, his son-in-law Ned,

andhissixgrandchildren:

Kate, Chloe, Phoebe, Sadie,

Natalie and Ethan. Mort gra-

duated from Stuyvesant High

School, New York University

and New York Law School.

Mort used his legal back-

ground in his lifelong career

in commercial real estate. He

was unmatched in his blend

of unconditional love, authen-

ticity, and humor. He always

had a smile on his face and

atwinkleinhiseye.To

read more, please visit:

http://www.JJFFH.com

SEKLER—Marvin.

The partners, counsel, asso-

ciates and staff of the firm of

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton

& Garrison LLP express pro-

found sorrow at the death on

August 3 of Marvin Sekler,

beloved father of our friend

and Executive Director, Eric

J. Sekler. We express our

deepest sympathies to Eric,

his wife Debbie, their children

Joshua, Jessica and Justin,

Eric's mother Rochelle, Eric's

brother Mitchel and his wife

Maria, their children Alyssa

and Jordan, Eric's brother Al-

lan and his wife Sharyn, their

children Brandon, Ryan, Ja-

son and Sammy and to all

other members of the family.

SINDEL—Alan Nelson,

passed away August 2, 2020

at age 84 of natural causes.

He is survived by his beloved

wife of 59 years, Anita Lipson

Sindel, loving son, Bill Sindel

and daughter-in-law Siggi

Warnock Sindel, proud

and lovinggranddaughter

Jessica,anddearbrother

BrianSindel.Heleavesa

legacy of devotion and loyal-

ty to his entire family includ-

ing his nieces, Shari, Jane,

and Patricia. In lieu of

flowers, charitable contribu-

tions to your choice of worthy

causes is appreciated.

SOHN—Bernard,

ourdear“Bernie”passed

away quietly on July 31, age

88. Born in New York City, he
    attendedMcBurneySchool
    and the University of Virgi-
    nia. After college he served in
    the United StatesCoast
    Guard and then joined the
    William Morris Agency. As a
    theatrical agent he represent-
    ed many of the rising stars of
    the 1960s and 1970s including
    members of thefamed
    Second City troupe. A kind
    and generous person, Ber-
    nie's unfailing good humor
    andinstantaneouswiten-
    dearedhimtohismany
    friends. He is survived by his
    nephewsDouglas and An-
    drew Sohn of Chicago and
    by his loving and adoring
    “family” of New York friends
    who will really miss him!

LINCOLN—Peter G.

Peter, it's been 20 years since

we lost you, way before your

time. You — and Kai — are

always in our thoughts, al-

ways in our hearts.

Love, Mary, Justin, Kara

Deaths Deaths Deaths Deaths Deaths Deaths Deaths

In Memoriam