[Deathwatch] Irving R. Levine, journalist, 86

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

Longtime NBC newsman Irving R. Levine dies

The bow-tied journalist was a presence at network since 1950

March. 27, 2009

MIAMI - Irving R. Levine, the bow-tied NBC newsman who explained the
fine points of economics to millions of viewers for nearly a quarter
century, has died. He was 86.

Levine died Friday of prostate cancer complications in Washington,
D.C., announced his son, Daniel Rome Levine.

Known for his dry, measured delivery and trademark bow ties, Levine was
a presence at NBC since 1950 when he began covering the Korean War
until his retirement in 1995.

He had become the network?s full-time economics correspondent in 1971
and in the last five years of his tenure also did weekly commentaries
on CNBC. He also appeared on ?Meet the Press? more than 100 times over
the years.

After retiring from NBC, Levine joined Lynn University in Boca Raton,
Fla., as dean of the college of international communication.

Born in Pawtucket, R.I., Levine began his career in 1940, writing
obituaries for The Providence Journal. He also worked as a
correspondent for the International News Service and The Times of
London.

After joining NBC, he covered assignments from Korea, Moscow and
Vietnam to Algeria, Poland and South Africa.

As NBC correspondent in the Soviet Union, he did a half-hour program in
1955 giving a tourist?s eye view of Moscow, showing Cold War-era
Americans that the Communist capital had ?an amusement park not unlike
Coney Island (and) another park in which old men played chess and
mothers relaxed with their children,? The New York Times reported. He
explored similar themes in his 1959 book, ?Main Street, U.S.S.R.?

In 1965, while in Rome, he interviewed the great film director Federico
Fellini.

In a 1995 New York Times interview, he recalled that he had hoped to
cover the State Department after winding up his foreign correspondent
days. But NBC bosses asked him early in 1971 to cover business news
instead.

?It was a barren time,? Levine said. ?Producers just weren?t interested
in those stories.? By the time he retired, though, business news on
television was a booming field ? though he noted in 1995 that something
like the Oklahoma city bombing or the O.J. Simpson trial could still
push it aside.

At a welcoming ceremony at the Boca Raton school later that year,
Levine said he didn?t miss the daily grind but still read three or four
newspapers every day, quipping, ?Once a news junkie, always a news
junkie.? He retired from the school in 2004 but continued to be a
prominent fixture on campus, a statement from the university said.

He is survived by his wife, Nancy, and their three children, Jeffrey,
Daniel and Jennifer.

In a humorous 2001 essay in The New York Times, Levine welcomed the
return of the middle initial as epitomized by then-new President George
W. Bush.

He recalled that producers trying to shorten a television news story of
his ?finally suggested I drop the R in my sign-off, Irving R. Levine. I
held my ground.?

??No,? I said, ?I?d rather drop the B in NBC.??

Many thanks to Deathwatch Central for posting this obituary