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BU alum, news reporter dies at 83, known as devoted reporter

Former New York Daily News city editor and Boston University alumnus Richard Blood was a native Bostonian who carried the Boston spirit with him throughout his career, said his son Michael.

“Boston was a place that never left my father,” Michael, a Los Angeles political writer for the Associated Press, said in a phone interview. “He liked nothing more than eating a clam chowder up in Wellfleet.”

Richard, 83, died of respiratory failure at St. Luke’s Hospital in Manhattan on Friday, his son said.

He spent 28 years in the news business and went on to teach at New York University, Columbia School of Journalism and Seton Hall University for two decades, according to a Feb. 18 article in the Daily News.

Michael described his father as a devoted journalist who spent most of the week working at his office.

“Probably the thing I remember the most was his passion,” Michael said. “He loved to go to work. He spent many hours there.”

Richard’s career stemmed from a “challenging upbringing,” Michael said. Born in 1928, Richard grew up during the Great Depression and decided to join the Navy while in public school as a teenager. He went on to work as a merchant mariner for a number of years.

He decided to attend college after traveling to Pennsylvania with a friend from the Merchant Marine. His friend’s two older sisters encouraged him to attend college. With their help, Richard enrolled at BU.

“Boston University was really a turning point and spring board in his life,” Michael said.  “The important part about his days in Boston University was that he moved from a sort of wayward youth in the military and then the merchant marines to a . . . path to his journalism career.”

Richard graduated from the School of Public Relations in 1954. He went on to get his master’s degree at Columbia University, where an annual award under his name for excellence in reporting continues to be awarded, according to the Daily News.

Richard began working for news publications in New Hampshire and Vermont and worked at the Newark Evening News in New Jersey, according to the article. He moved on to the Daily News, working there for 12 years.

“He was passionate about journalism as a force for good and obsessed with the practice of the craft,” Michael said.

While Michael’s decision to pursue a career in journalism was his own, he described his father as an inspiring figure in the field.

“I saw how he relished each day in the newsroom, its excitement, the challenge of chasing a good story,” he said. “He was passionate about journalism as a force for good and obsessed with the practice of the craft.

CORRECTION: The first quote by Michael Blood originally said his father Richard enjoyed clam chowder in Wells Creek. However, Blood was referring to his father having clam chowder in Wellfleet.

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One Comment

  1. Dear Michael: Loved reading about your father -thank you.
    Janice