Martin Agronsky
| Martin Agronsky | |
|---|---|
| Born |
January 12, 1915 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | July 25, 1999 (aged 84) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Cause of death | Congestive heart failure |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Years active | 1936–1988 |
| Spouse(s) |
|
| Children | 5 |
Martin Agronsky (January 12, 1915 – July 25, 1999) was an American journalist and host of the television program Agronsky & Company.
Agronsky was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on January 12, 1915; the son of Russian Jewish immigrants. He moved to Atlantic City, New Jersey, as a young child and graduated from Atlantic City High School in 1932 and from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1936.
In 1936, Agronsky became a reporter for the Palestine Post, precursor to today's Jerusalem Post, which had been founded by an uncle, Gershon Agron. In 1937, he left the newspaper to become a freelance journalist. During this period he covered the last days of the ill-fated League of Nations and the Spanish Civil War of 1936–39. During his time in Europe, he freelanced for various American, British, and other newspapers and various wire services around the world including a freelance piece he wrote for Foreign Affairs magazine on the rise of anti-Semitism in Mussolini's Italy. In 1940, Max Jordan, the NBC bureau chief for all of Europe, was scrambling to put together an NBC presence throughout Europe to cover Hitler's war with Britain in the Balkans. Jordan tapped Agronsky to be the NBC bureau chief in the Balkans. At first Agronsky covered the war from all over the Balkans and much of Eastern Europe. Eventually, he opened a permanent NBC bureau in Ankara, the capital of neutral Turkey.
Although based in Ankara, Agronsky spent most of his time in Istanbul. In Europe and North Africa Agronsky became a foreign correspondent for NBC, providing war coverage from the Balkans and Eastern Europe. Eventually Agronsky was transferred to Cairo and accredited to cover the British 8th Army in North Africa. When Pearl Harbor was bombed by Japan on December 7, 1941, Agronsky was sent to Australia. His journey to Australia to cover General Douglas MacArthur's arrival in Melbourne from Corregidor took several months and took him through several countries. Agronsky arrived in Singapore as the city was being bombed into submission by the Japanese air force while the Japanese Army began circling the city with ground troops. After a week in Singapore, Agronsky was lucky to catch literally one of the last airplanes out.
...
Wikipedia