The Eastwick Press Newspaper

Eastern Rensselaer County's Community Newspaper

Richard J. Blood

By

New Lebanon – Former New York Daily News City Editor Richard J. Blood, who nurtured young writers in the newsroom and the classroom during a long journalistic career, has died of respiratory failure.
Mr. Blood, 83, passed away on Friday, February 17, 2012, at St. Luke’s Hospital in Manhattan. He spent 28 years in the newspaper business, including a dozen at The News – first as night city editor then as day city editor – when it was the nation’s largest circulation newspaper.
Dick was a full time resident of New Lebanon, NY, for the last ten years, and he and his wife were weekend and summer residents of New Lebanon since 1987. They were also communicants of the Church of the Immaculate Conception in New Lebanon. Mr. Blood was a veteran of the United States Navy who was honorably discharged in October of 1947 as a Seaman 1st Class. He served in the Merchant Marine before attending Boston University, where he graduated in 1954.
Mr. Blood’s career began at newspapers in New Hampshire and Vermont before joining the now defunct Newark Evening News and then the Daily News. He worked at The News, then based on East 42nd Street, during the 1970s and early 1980s.
Mr. Blood found a second career as a college teacher, instructing would be reporters at the Columbia School of Journalism, New York University and Seton Hall University for more than two decades. An annual prize in his name is still awarded for excellence in reporting at Columbia, where he earned a Masters degree in journalism.
Richard is survived by his wife, Dr. Carol Joyce Blood of Manhattan and New Lebanon, his children from a previous marriage, sons, Michael, a political writer for The Associated Press in Los Angeles and Christopher of Denville, NJ, daughter, Kathleen Blood Stokas of Tucson, AZ, and four grandchildren.
A Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, March 10, at noon in the Church of the Immaculate Conception, 732 US 20, New Lebanon where Rev. John L. Close will celebrate a Liturgy of Christian Death and Burial. There will be no calling hours, and interment will be in the spring. Arrangements are under the guidance of Hall & Higgins Funeral Home of Stephentown, NY.
In lieu of flowers, donations are being accepted by the Richard J. Blood Award for Excellence in Reporting, made payable to Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Office of Alumni & Development, 2950 Broadway, New York, NY, 10027. Please note in memo section on check: Prof. Richard Blood Prize.