Bob McManus, the wry and eminently honest voice of the New York Put up for over a decade, died Saturday at NYU Langone Hospital. He was 81.
McManus was a Postie for 29 years — the final 12 because the influential editorial web page editor, the place authorities waste, private and non-private corruption, and hypocrisy in all its varieties felt the “ache of his withering gaze,” because the paper famous when he retired in 2013.
“He was a journalist’s journalist,” stated former Put up state editor Fredric U. Dicker.
McManus died three days in need of his 82nd birthday of problems from bile duct most cancers, his household stated.
Robert LaVelle McManus Jr. was born in Buffalo, the oldest of 9 siblings to Robert L. McManus Sr. and Jeanette Manning. He was launched to journalism early in life to by his father, an award-winning reporter at Binghamton and Albany newspapers who went on to develop into a high aide and press secretary for the late Gov. Nelson Rockefeller.
“Bob had recollections of going to work together with his dad on Saturdays,” stated Mary McManus, his spouse of 24 years. “Newspapers had been in his blood.”
McManus was raised in Binghamton and, after a bout with polio at 12, moved to Albany together with his household. He graduated Vincentian Institute highschool, the place by his personal admission he was “academically undistinguished,” his spouse stated.
He was all the time a tough employee — in highschool he finagled a full-time job as supervisor of the “pets and vegetation” division at W.T. Grants division retailer whereas a pupil.
After commencement he enlisted within the US Navy and served 4 years — first on a destroyer, the USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., after which on a submarine, the USS Sablefish. He was happy with his time within the highly-selective “silent service,” and was a member of the NYC Base of the USA Submarine Veterans.
He returned to Albany, and acquired his first crack on the new enterprise, as a duplicate boy on the morning Occasions Union, whereas he took lessons at Siena School.
He rapidly moved up the ranks to develop into an award-winning investigative reporter, exposing corruption and malfeasance on subjects like snow elimination and Medicaid, family and friends recalled.
Longtime good friend EJ McMahon, an adjunct fellow on the Manhattan Institute for Coverage Analysis, described McManus’ writing fashion as “pithy amalgam of Damon Runyon, Raymond Chandler and Pink Smith.”
“He was the final of a dying breed in what’s left of journalism — beneath the editorial author and columnist was an old-school, no-nonsense reporter, a stickler for accuracy and equity.”
He turned the Albany paper’s metropolis editor and initiatives editor within the Seventies earlier than being persuaded in 1984 by Dicker to maneuver to Manhattan and be a part of the New York Put up’s editorial web page. In 2000, he was named editorial web page editor.
McManus was “all the time after the reality, and by no means let his private views, or his abiding cynicism, get in the way in which of that pursuit,” Dicker stated.
The month earlier than the Sept. 11, 2001 assaults, McManus ran an editorial thundering that Washington was basically ignoring al Qaeda regardless of escalating assaults. With Floor Zero nonetheless burning, he felt obliged to postpone his wedding ceremony for a month, recalled his successor, present Put up Editorial Web page Editor Mark Cunningham.
“Bob was a professional; a pointy basic dresser; an avid reader all throughout his ridiculously wide selection of pursuits; a man who liked to craft an excellent line; a person who cared concerning the reality and despised phonies; all the time conscious that our mission is to consolation the bothered and afflict the snug,” recalled Cunningham.
He particularly “liked” giving opinions about George Pataki’s 12-year tenure as governor, and was generally fast to needle Pataki by inserting “blah, blah, blah” every time writing editorials discussing the administration’s rationale on state coverage points, recalled his spouse.
“Bob liked politicians,” Mary McManus stated. “He discovered them very fascinating, whether or not they’re Democrat or Republican, and other people did think about him to be honest despite the fact that he wrote editorials.”
Longtime Put up editor and columnist Steve Cuozzo known as McManus his “Irish ‘rabbi.’”
“He knew each dwelling and no-longer-living soul in Albany, together with Nelson Rockefeller, and his deep data of presidency in any respect ranges knowledgeable his each editorial and opinion piece,” he stated.
“His time on a U.S. Navy submarine instilled in him a profound power and self-discipline, however he was additionally a sort and witty man beloved by his colleagues. . . . We’ll miss him terribly.”
Regardless that he retired, McManus by no means actually left The Put up, persevering with to pen common sense columns. He’d often settle for the task with a shrug, “I suppose I may do it,” — solely to name again quarter-hour later to say, “I’m very labored up, can I’ve extra room?” one staffer recalled.
His final New York Put up piece in March 2024 known as Gov. Hochul’s resolution to deploy Nationwide Guard troops into the town’s subway system to handle rising crime a “political stunt — undertaken to divert consideration from her unwillingness to confront the core downside: the hammerlock crime-tolerant progressivism has on public coverage in New York.”
“Life was fascinating with him,” stated Mary McManus “He simply knew a lot and put the items collectively so nicely. . . . His reminiscence was phenomenal.”
In addition to his spouse, McManus is survived by his daughter Kathleen McManus, three sisters and 4 brothers.
The household is planning to carry a memorial service honoring him someday subsequent month.
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