[Deathwatch] W.C. "Bill" Heinz, writer, 93

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

Former SI contributor Heinz dies
WWII correspondent also helped write book "MASH"
Posted: Wednesday February 27, 2008
	
Bill Heinz
W.C. "Bill" Heinz, who died at age 93, helped Green Bay Packers coach
Vince Lombardi write the book "Run to Daylight."

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- W.C. "Bill" Heinz, who witnessed the Normandy
invasion on D-Day, covered some of the greatest sports moments of his
time and helped write the book MASH, has died. He was 93.

He had been in declining health for several years and died Wednesday at
the assisted living facility where he'd lived since 2002, said his
daughter, Gayl Heinz, of Amesbury, Mass.

Born Wilfred Charles Heinz on Jan. 11, 1915, in Mount Vernon, N.Y., he
attended Middlebury College and after graduation in 1937 went to work
as a copy boy at the New York Sun.

Heinz is credited with helping create a you-are-there style of
reporting that influenced a generation of journalists.

"I so much wanted to be a newspaper man," he said during a 2002
interview with The Associated Press.

During the war, he was chosen by the Sun to be a war correspondent and
covered the invasion of Normandy from a battleship

"He was a brilliant, incisive war correspondent," said Joe Goldstein, a
veteran New York publicist.

After the war, he was wrote a column at the Sun called "The Sports
Scene."

In 1948, Heinz was at Yankee Stadium for a reunion of the 1923 New York
Yankees that turned out to be Babe Ruth's farewell. The slugger died
from throat cancer two months later.

Heinz also helped Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi write the book
Run to Daylight, which was later made into a movie, and wrote about
boxing, horse racing and other sports after leaving daily journalism in
1950 when the Sun folded.

In his later years, sports reporters visited Heinz at his Bennington
home to hear his recollections. He was featured in Sports Illustrated,
Esquire, Vanity Fair, on ESPN, in newspapers and in other magazines.

In the mid-60s, Heinz worked with Maine physician H. Richard Hornberger
on MASH, which was published under the pseudonym Richard Hooker. The
book spawned the hit 1971 movie and television series.

In 2001, Heinz was inducted into the National Sportscasters and
Sportswriters Hall of Fame, and in 2004 to the International Boxing
Hall of Fame.

He is survived by his daughter and one grandchild.

No services are planned for the near future.

Many thanks to Deathwatch Central for posting this obituary