Samuel M. Sharkey Jr.

SAMUEL M. SHARKEY, JR.

Samuel M. Sharkey, Jr., a journalist for 70 years who invented the system for collecting votes in national elections that is still used by broadcasters, wire services and newspapers, died on March 14, 2006. He was 90 years old.

Mr. Sharkey, who joined the New York Times in 1945 as a copy editor on the foreign desk, was one of the founding executives of its International Air Edition (now the International Herald Tribune), and head of the national news desk. He later moved to the National Broadcasting Company as its first Editor of NBC News, and was one of a triumvirate of executives who in 1956 put together the Huntley-Brinkley news program.

Known as a witty speaker, he lectured widely for The Times and NBC News. He also had been a choral singer, university professor, a private airplane pilot, an automobile and outboard motorboat race driver, a motor yachtsman, a member of the Presidential Executive Reserve, and a clown at the 1939 New York World's Fair. He also staged the New Jersey State Little Theater Tournament for several years.

Born March 26, 1915 in Trenton, N.J., Mr. Sharkey described himself as "a bit of a child prodigy" because he began covering sports on a "stringer" basis for the Trenton State Gazette at the age of 13. Among the stories he covered during his newspaper career were the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby and the trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, the crash of the Hindenburg, and the burning of the Bermuda cruise liner Morro Castle.

Mr. Sharkey had been a member of the Capital Yacht Club, where he was a life member, former vice commodore. He is survived by his wife of 38 years, Marilyn Marshall Sharkey; a daughter, Constance McCue, of New Castle, Del; a step-daughter Sandi Purvis of Redondo Beach, CA, and; two granddaughters. A memorial service will be held in his honor at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 19, at the Capital Yacht Club located at 1000 Water St., SW, in Washington, D.C. Contributions in his memory may be sent to the Multiple Sclerosis Society, an illness his daughter suffered.