Myron Rushetzky

Myron Rushetzky, 73, died Friday, August 15 at NYU Langone Medical Center in Manhattan. He had been diagnosed in March with gastric cancer. A New York City newspaper legend, Myron worked at the New York Post for nearly forty years, mostly manning the city desk, a position critical to the operation of a newspaper, particularly in the pre-Internet era. In his retirement, he created Post Nation, a large email community of his former colleagues and friends.

Myron was born in on July 15, 1952 in Bath Beach, Brooklyn to Hannah and Martin Rushetzky of blessed memory. He was also predeceased by his brothers, Mitchell and Stuart.

After graduating from Lafayette High School in Brooklyn in 1969, Myron enrolled at City College. In 1974, while still a student, he took a part-time job as a copyboy at the New York Post. Though he earned a civil engineering degree, he never pursued a career in that field, opting instead to continue at the Post where he filled a variety of roles, eventually rising to head city desk assistant. His job involved, among many other things, knowing where reporters and editors were at all times, at all hours; knowing the phone numbers of the bars where they hung out, and the names of the bartenders; and knowing when a story was important enough to rouse them. "Everything was my fault," he once said. "I was the eye of the hurricane."

In the 1980s, when ATMs were scarce, Myron often made no-interest loans to colleagues, keeping track of amounts on a yellowing scrap of paper in his wallet. He still had the paper as recently as 2019, when he noticed several outstanding debts. "Someone still owes me twenty-one dollars for tickets to the opening of Nuts," he said. The play, by former Post writer Tom Topor, debuted on Broadway in 1980.

While in college, Myron began sending birthday cards to friends, and, after he began working at the Post, to colleagues. He never missed a birthday or an anniversary, sending thousands of cards over the years before switching to electronic greetings after he took a buyout from the Post in 2013. He was still sending birthday wishes a week before his death.

Myron was a newspaperman to the core, and his paper was the New York Post. In creating Post Nation, he brought together generations of people who worked at the paper before, during, and in between Rupert Murdoch's two stints as owner. They might not share the same editorial views, but the members of Post Nation all cherished Myron and his singular focus on the positive aspects of his favorite newspaper.

At the time of his death, Myron lived in Woodside, Queens. He is survived by his cousins, Sarah Popowski, Mark Popowski, David Popowski, Martha Popowski Berlin, Sam Chensky and their children - and his many friends.

Donations can be made to the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. (ushmm.org). Acknowledgements should be sent to Family of Myron Rushetzky, 3 Kings Tavern Place NW, Atlanta, GA 30318