Steven Komarow, CqRoll Call's Executive Editorand a longtime Associated Pressand Usa TodayJournaliststeeped in the ways of Washingtonand war, has died at 61.
Komarow died in a hospital Sunday after a long illness complicated by a recent accident, his employer said.
The famously unflappable Komarow spent nearly 20 years with AP 1978 to 1993, and 2006 to 2010 and rose to become Deputy Chiefof AP's Washingtonbureau before leaving for BloombergNewsto steer defense, justice and White Housecoverage.
In 2015, he joined CqRoll Callas Vice President And NewsDirectorbefore his elevation a year later to Executive EditorAnd Senior Vice President
Komarow also worked for a dozen years for USA Today, covering wars in Afghanistanand Iraqbefore returning to AP as Assistantand then Deputy International Editor
For all of Komarow's accomplishments in journalism, one of the most indelible episodes of his career came when he served as an impromptu hostage Negotiatorin December 1982. That tested his imperturbable nature.
Then an AP reporter, Komarow was assigned to "swing by" the WashingtonMonument, where "I learned that a wacko in a dark blue jumpsuit and full-face motorcycle helmet had driven a white-panel truck up the path to the monument doorway," he recounted in now-defunct George magazine.
"The truck was full of dynamite, the man claimed. There was no reason to doubt him." Norman D Mayer, a nuclear disarmament activist, had monument visitors trapped inside and demanded to speak face to face with a Reporterwho was single with no kids.
Komarow, who then fit the bill, volunteered, and visited him five times during the hours-long standoff, "trying to get him to relax and chat" and to turn the monument lights on at twilight. Mayer let the hostages go.
Mayer eventually tried to flee in his truck. Police snipers killed him. No explosives were found.
"Mayer seems less like a terrorist than a Don Quixote," Komarow wrote in the 2007 piece. "Even in bluff, he avoided harm to anyone but himself."
Ap Executive EditorSally Buzbee, who was Middle EastRegional Editor For The NewsServiceduring four years of the Iraqwar, said Komarow was "one of the smartest and nicest people I ever worked with at AP.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)