Benjamin Bradlee, who led the newsroom of The Washington Post for 26 years and turned the newspaper into one of the world's premiere news services, passed away on Oct. 21 at the age of 93.
He was known as the leader of the newspaper that helped force President Richard Nixon to resign from his post after the exposure of the Watergate scandal.
Bradlee died in his Washington home due to natural causes. The Post reported late in September that its former editor had started hospice care after suffering for several years from Alzheimer's disease.
Bradlee served as the executive editor for the Post from 1968 until 1991, in the process becoming one of the most significant personalities in Washington. He transformed the Post from a regular morning daily into one of the most respected newspapers not just in the United States but also the entire world.
Bradlee guided Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, young reporters back in 1972, when their investigation of a burglary at the headquarters of the Democratic Party in the Watergate office and apartment complex led them to the White House, uncovering what is now famously known as the Watergate scandal.
The Post received a Pulitzer Prize for the reporting on the scandal, which forced Nixon out of office in August 1974.
Bradlee permitted Bernstein and Woodward to vigorously pursue the story and its cover-up, allowing The Washington Post to publish around 400 articles on the scandal over a period of 28 months.
The coverage by the Post of the Watergate scandal, including the book and the movie that revolved around it, All the President's Men, served as an inspiration for an entire generation of incoming investigative reporters.
"I think the great lesson of Watergate was probably the stick-tuitiveness of the Post," once said Bradlee to the American Journalism Review. "The fact that we hunkered down and backed the right horse. I think that was a wonderful lesson for publishers, too."
During the coverage of Watergate, Woodward recognized Bradlee's role by calling him "a presence, a force" that steered the investigation.
"And he was a doubter, a skeptic -- 'Do we have it yet?' 'Have we proved it?'" he added.
After decades, Woodward would still remember the words that he hated the most coming from Bradlee. "You don't have it yet, kid."
Under Bradlee's leadership, the Post grew its editorial staff to 600 people, elevated its news budget from $3 million to $60 million and increased readership from 446,000 to 802,000.
Bradlee was a well-dressed executive who spewed profanities like a dockworker. He will forever be remembered as one of the pillars of The Washington Post and modern journalism.
