Washington Post's legendary editor, Ben Bradlee dies at 93 years old.
Bradlee (full name Benjamin C. Bradlee) died in his Washington home on October 21 of natural causes.
According to CNN, the former editor had been suffering from Alzheimer's and dementia for several years before beginning hospice care at home last September.
"He was diagnosed a while ago, but it became obvious that he had a serious problem about two years ago," his wife, Sally Quinn, revealed in a C-SPAN interview. However, the Washington Post columnist said Bradlee still recognizes and loves having her around.
Quinn admitted that she kept his disease a secret because "everybody's attitude changes toward you" once it's known.
According to the tribute written by the Washington Post, Bradlee "sought to create an important newspaper that would go far beyond the traditional model of a metropolitan daily."
In his 26 years as editor-in-chief of The Post, he wrote "compelling news stories based on aggressive reporting with engaging feature pieces of a kind previously associated with the best magazines."
His most famous investigative work is the Watergate coverage which factored greatly in the downfall of President Richard Nixon in the 1970s.
"Ben was a true friend and genius leader in journalism," the duo who broke the Watergate story, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, described the deceased journalist. "He forever altered our business. His one unbending principle was the quest for the truth and the necessity of that pursuit."
Being The Post's vice president at-large for the past 23 years, Bradlee was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barrack Obama, the highest honor given to normal citizens.
President Obama said during the ceremony, "With Ben in charge, the Post published the Pentagon Papers, revealing the true history of America's involvement in Vietnam; exposed Watergate; unleashed a new era of investigative journalism, holding America's leaders accountable and reminding us that our freedom as a nation rests on our freedom of the press."
