Robert C. Samuels

Robert C. Samuels

Award-winning journalist, Author and longtime Piermonter community activist Robert C. Samuels died April 26th of Covid-19. He was 83.

Born in Manhattan, Samuels moved to Rockland County when he was 11. His family first lived in Grand View and then moved to Nyack. After graduating from high school there in 1955, he joined the Air Force.

His journalism career began when he became a reporter on a base newspaper in Alaska. Once discharged, he studied at Columbia University, and then worked in a series of newspaper jobs, including a stint on a White Plains Daily and for The Bergen Record. He also edited The County Citizen, a New City weekly paper.

Samuels went on to become a reporter for the World Telegram and Sun in New York City. It was the 1960s, an exciting time to be a journalist there. He covered anti-war and civil rights demonstrations, riots in Harlem and Patterson, NJ. He wrote stories on crime and politics and interviewed many famous people, including Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy and former President Harry S. Truman.

After the paper shutdown in 1967, Texaco Inc., the oil company, hired him as a writer. He travelled all over the world on writing assignments. He eventually became editor of the company's shareholder magazine. In 1981, he was stricken with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a neurological disorder. It left him a wheelchair dependent quadriplegic for the rest of his life.

Working then from his Piermont home, Samuels continued to freelance for Texaco and for numerous magazines and newspapers — sometimes collaborating with his son, photographer Charlie Samuels. He also was a contributing editor for New Mobility, a national monthly magazine for active wheelchair users.

In 2011, he published "Blue Water, White Water," his much-acclaimed book about his hospital experiences. In its review by The New York Times, said, the book "stands head and shoulders above the crowd." It added that Samuels "writes with the jaunty triumph of the survivor."

For many years, he was the president of the Piermont Civic Association (PCA) and served on the village's Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals. Samuels was proudest of his successful efforts to open the north shore walkway on the Piermont pier, and to block motor vehicle traffic on the pier on some summer Sundays. He also wrote for and sometimes edited The Piermont Newsletter and emailed village news and announcements to residents on a daily basis.

Samuels' last days were spent sharing a hospital room with long time partner Karen Brown as they battled corona virus. Ms. Brown passed three days later.

He is survived by a son Charles R. Samuels of Saratoga Springs, NY and two grandchildren Cassidy and Atticus. A memorial service will be planned after the coronavirus pandemic.