Former WaPo Editor Ben Bradlee Has Died

Ben Bradlee

Ben Bradlee, the former Washington Post executive editor who lead the paper from 1968 to 1991 and became famous for guiding it during its Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage breaking the Watergate scandal, died Tuesday (October 21st).

He was 93 years-of-age.

Bradlee's wife, Sally Quinn, disclosed last month that Bradlee had suffered from Alzheimer's disease for several years and was in hospice care.

Bradlee led the transformation of the Post into a prominent national newspaper, first as managing editor and then executive editor. In addition to overseeing the reporting of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein during the Watergate scandal, Bradlee also famously published the Pentagon Papers in the Post in 1971, a secret study of the Vietnam War, against the advice of attorneys and pleas from top government officials, eventually leading to a Supreme Court ruling upholding the right of newspapers to publish the leaked documents.

Bradlee retired from the Post in 1991.

In 2013, he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom. "A true newspaperman, he transformed the Washington Post into one of the country's finest newspapers," President Obama said in a statement, "and with him at the helm, a growing army of reporters published the Pentagon Papers, exposed Watergate, and told stories that needed to be told."

Bradlee - who fought in the Navy during World War II - became a reporter in the 1950s. He soon became close friends with then senator and future President John F. Kennedy

"From the moment he took over the Post newsroom in 1965, Bradlee sought to create an important newspaper that would go far beyond the traditional model of a metropolitan daily," WaPo wrote in its obit.