Writer Saul Friedman Passed Dec. 24 in Edgewater

Journalist Saul Friedman, 81, died peacefully at home on Dec. 24. He was surrounded by family. Online remembrances are being left for the former White House correspondent at the website TimeGoesBy.net, a blog where Friedman wrote a weekly column, "Gray Matters," dealing with senior issues.

Friedman won a 1967 Pulitzer prize for his coverage of urban riots while writing for the Detroit Free Press. In 1978, he was named one of Washington's ten most outstanding journalists in an American University Journalism School survey.

Friedman was the White House correspondent for New York Newsday and Knight Ridder newspapers, a 1963 Nieman Fellow, and an associate and then adjunct professor at the Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.

In his early career, Friedman was a general assignment reporter for the Houston Chronicle, starting in 1953. He has also written for the Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, the New Republic, the New York Times Magazine, and Harvard Political Review.

Friedman was born in Brooklyn and graduated from New York City public schools. Along with 56 other journalists, Friedman's name was included on former President Richard Nixon's List of Political Opponents.

Friedman covered some of the most important historical events in recent American and world history, including the presidencies of Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. He covered the Vietnam anti-war movement, the impeachment of Richard Nixon and the resignation of then-Vice President Spiro Agnew.

After retiring from daily writing in 1996, Friedman, along with his wife, Evelyn, spent five months in South Africa teaching budding journalists how to report the news in a new democracy.

Upon returning to his home in Edgewater, Friedman wrote his Gray Matters column.

In late November, Earl Kelly of The Capital interviewed Friedman about his final days and home care by Hospice of the Chesapeake. The story appeared online at HometownAnnapolis.com.

His grandson, Benjamin Hall, wrote at TimeGoesBy.net that Friedman was blessed with many small miracles, including a love and appreciation for all kinds of music. "As he lies in bed, taking in the breaths that will be his last, Frank Sinatra, John Lennon and Ludwig van Beethoven accompany him. He shared his love of music with me many years ago when he gave me Beethoven's piano sonatas, a gift I cherish to this day," Hall wrote.

From the Hardesty Funeral Home obituary, "Friedman leaves behind the love of his life and wife of 58 years, Evelyn, who everyone knows enabled him to be so successful and influential with his work, and daughters Lise Friedman Spiegel and her husband, Bennett, Leslie Kriewald, and her husband, Paul. He also leaves his beloved grandchildren Benjamin, Zachary, Daniel, Melanie, Stephanie, Carly and Little Paul as well as his only great grandchild, Hayden."

Services will be held at Hardesty Funeral Home-Annapolis, 12 Ridgely Avenue in Annapolis on Tuesday (Dec. 28) at 11am.