R.I.P.: NPR Anchor Craig Windham Was 66

Craig Windham

Craig Windham, a veteran NPR reporter known for delivering bite-size reports for top-of-the-hour newscasts in a warm, familiar tone to millions of Americans, died on Sunday in Winston-Salem, N.C. He was 66.

The NY Times reports his brother, Cris Windham, said the cause was a pulmonary embolism. Craig Windham had been visiting his brother in Winston-Salem when he fell ill.

Mr. Windham joined NPR in 1995 and worked as a reporter, and sometimes as an anchor, in Washington. His reports on the events of the day, in roughly 40-second segments, covered topics ranging from natural disasters to hearings on Capitol Hill.

In an interview on Tuesday, Robert Garcia, the executive producer of NPR’s newscasts, described Mr. Windham’s reports as “gorgeous, beautifully layered audio.”

Craig Windham was born in Washington on June 20, 1949, the first of two sons of Robert and Dorothy Windham. He graduated in 1971 with a major in government from William and Mary, where he got his start as a radio reporter at the student-run station. He went on to earn a master’s degree and a doctorate in counseling from George Washington University.

Before joining NPR, Mr. Windham was a national correspondent for the Unistar/RKO radio networks and a news director at WASH-FM in Washington.