R. W. Apple Jr. | |
---|---|
Born |
Raymond Walter Apple Jr. November 20, 1934 Akron, Ohio, U.S. |
Died | October 4, 2006 Washington, D.C., U.S. |
(aged 71)
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Columbia University School of General Studies |
Occupation | Journalist |
Raymond Walter Apple Jr. (November 20, 1934 – October 4, 2006), known to all as "Johnny," but bylined as R.W. Apple Jr., was an associate editor at The New York Times, where he wrote on a variety of subjects, most notably politics, travel, and food.
Born in Akron, Ohio, Apple graduated from Western Reserve Academy, a private, coeducational boarding school in the small town of Hudson, Ohio, where he first practiced journalism at the school's newspaper, "The Reserve Record." Apple first attended Princeton University, where he was suspended from school several times for devoting too much time to working on the Daily Princetonian. He later graduated from the Columbia University School of General Studies in 1961.
He began his career with The Wall Street Journal in the 1950s, covering business and social issues, including the early years of the Civil Rights Movement. He served as a journalist and speechwriter in the United States Army from 1957 to 1959, and returned to the Wall Street Journal after completing his service. In 1961, he went to work at NBC News, becoming the lifelong friend of a then young Tom Brokaw. While at NBC, Apple reported for the Huntley-Brinkley Report and won an Emmy Award for his work. In the last of his 29 appearances on the Charlie Rose talk show, he said that the most satisfying time of his career was when he was reporting on the American civil rights movement.
Apple joined The New York Times in 1963, and over more than 30 years, contributed foreign correspondence from over 100 countries, including coverage of the Vietnam War – where his penetrating questioning helped expose the unreliability of the military briefings known as the Five O'Clock Follies – the Biafra crisis, the Iranian revolution, and the fall of Communist governments in the Soviet bloc. In addition, he served as the Times' bureau chief in Saigon, Lagos, Nairobi, London and Moscow.