Gregory Katz, journalist and friend

Member of a dying breed

Gregory Katz, Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent extraordinaire, has died of complications arising from the coronavirus, leaving a ragged tear in this country's journalistic fabric and a hole in the hearts of his many colleagues and friends, among whom I am proud to include myself.

Greg and I worked together for many years on the foreign desk of The Dallas Morning News, where he was bureau chief of first the Mexico City Bureau and later the European Bureau.

He was a member of the DMN team that won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for a series of ground-breaking articles about violence against women in countries across the globe.

Important journalism

Greg's contribution to that tremendous example of good and important journalism was a story about the women of the small Mexican city of Juchitan, who despite their positions of political authority, still suffered sexual and physical abuse at the hands of their husbands and other men in the city.

In typical Katz fashion, it was a tale that defied expectations, ran counter to conventional wisdom and revealed truths the citizens of Juchitan would rather have remained hidden.

Greg, 67, was recovering from cancer surgery when he contracted COVID-19. He died Monday.

He was everything a foreign correspondent should be – smart, savvy, courageous, cool under pressure and fiercely loyal to those he trusted. In a job where logistical skills can be just as important as journalistic prowess, Greg excelled at both.

He could arrive at the scene of a breaking story, immediately commandeer hotel phone lines or set up satellite phones, all the while sizing up the situation and gathering material for a first-edition story. With Greg on the ground, you never worried about making deadline.

He covered many important stories in Mexico – the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas and the assassination of presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio among them.

A close call

I remember a phone call I got from Greg during the Zapatista conflict. He calmly told me he and another reporter had been ambushed earlier in the day at a remote crossroads in Chiapas, narrowly escaping injury. Thirty minutes later, he filed his story, but didn’t mention his close call. For him, it was just another day at the office.

During the Kosovo civil war in the Balkans, Greg suffered a detached retina, the result of a mugging in New York he had received many years earlier. Despite his doctor’s warnings – and my persistent nagging – Greg traveled by taxi daily to the conflicted area. He filed every day for eight straight days.

Foreign correspondents like Greg Katz are rapidly fading from the scene. Newspapers simply can’t afford them any longer. As a society, and as individuals, we will be less informed, more vulnerable to xenophobia and ignorance and less prepared to live in a world economy as a result.

But Greg was more than just a fine journalist. He was a stellar man – full of kindness and virtue, with a generous heart, a forgiving spirit and unshakable integrity. In fact, his only flaw was his unfathomable devotion to the New York Yankees. For that, we must forget and forgive.

I am heartbroken for Greg’s beloved wife, Bea Sennewald, and his daughter, Sophia. I’m not ashamed to say that I wept when I heard the news of his death. That’s what we do when good friends, friends with whom we’ve shared great things and who have helped shape our lives, leave us.

Note from AP

Greg was working for The Associated Press when he died. Here’s the note AP CEO Gary Pruitt sent to AP staffers:

I am so very sorry to have to let you know of another death of an AP colleague. Greg Katz, our London correspondent and formerly our acting chief of bureau in London, has died. Greg had been ill and in the last few months had contracted COVID-19.

Greg came to the AP in 2008, from the Houston Chronicle’s London office, where he was bureau chief for Europe and the Middle East. In 2013 he was promoted to acting Bureau Chief for London. He did excellent work in that role, including leading AP’s news coverage of Brexit and the election of Boris Johnson as prime minister. His death is a loss to the AP and a loss to journalism.

Greg, a native of Connecticut, was passionate about news, rock and roll, the New York Yankees and his family. He was the only journalist to cover John Lennon’s death from inside the Dakota Apartments where Lennon lived. Greg was part of the team in 1994 that won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for a series on violence against women around the world, when he worked at the Dallas Morning News. He is survived by his wife, Beatrice Sennewald, and their daughter Sophia.

Even as this week has underscored the pandemic’s dreadful course, my spirits are buoyed by all the ways in which our AP colleagues have been providing help and support for one another. Please remember that if you need additional support, you can speak with your manager or HR representative, and employee assistance plan services are available to you.

With sympathy,

Gary Pruitt