Tom Squitieri

Tom Squitieri, an award-winning journalist whose reporting from the frontlines of overseas war zones and the back rooms of American politics was marked by a focus on the human side of any news story, and who found a calling late in life as a nationally published poet, died on Sunday, Sept.1, 2024, at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C.

His former wife, Cheryl Bruner, was by his side, holding his hand and playing some of his favorite songs including Eva Cassidy’s “Over the Rainbow” and Louis Armstong’s “What a Wonderful World.” Their daughter, Gabriella, and their son, Marco, had traveled home for heartfelt visits full of laughter and reminiscing after Tom’s recent diagnosis of an aggressive form of leukemia. They both spoke to him in his final hours. Tom was 71.

His eclectic interests included the Pittsburgh Steelers, coin collecting, cooking Italian, biking, gardening, astronomy, history, geography, movies, playing the trombone, the arts and being able to one up his friends with jokes and pranks and to hear the sound of others laughing. All of those pursuits, however, were dwarfed by his passion and love for his two children, Gabriella and Marco. 

His journalism career began at his hometown paper, The Valley News Dispatch in Tarentum, Pa., and his reporter’s curiosity took him from his home in Lower Burrell, Pa. to all seven continents. He covered war and civil strife in Northern Ireland, Central America, the former Yugoslavia -- where he was wounded by a rocket-propelled grenade -- Burundi, Rwanda, Haiti, Afghanistan and Iraq. His political coverage included urban affairs in Boston and Lowell, Mass., and U.S. presidential campaigns while working as the Washington-based correspondent for the Lowell Sun and the Boston Herald. 

Before traveling to a war zone Tom would engage in the ritual of watching the movie Casablanca and smoking half of a cigar. He would leave the rest of the cigar in an ashtray on his porch, then finish upon his safe return. 

Along the way, Tom’s 16 years of reporting for USA Today earned him the White House Correspondents Association’s prestigious Raymond Clapper Memorial Award in 1993, after coming in second two years before, as well as citations from the Overseas Press Club. He also was known for favoring red Converse high-top sneakers.

“I write in ways to engage, stimulate and connect with all kinds of people,” Tom wrote of his career, and how he styled his career. “As a journalist, I worked all over the world and brought the stories of people to readers; they read, they cared and they acted because of this reporting.” 

John Hillkirk, a friend and fellow journalist, said, “As a war correspondent, he was the bravest you’ve ever met. He learned the hand signs to make his way past checkpoints in Bosnia. He wore a bright orange T-shirt in Central America that said “El periodista no dispare” -- reporter don’t shoot -- and it was no joke as he was in gunfire action more than once. In Africa one time, he rode across the border in the back of the Jeep with several guys carrying machine guns and the finance department wanted to know why he didn’t have a receipt for it.”

David Colton, a former editor at USA Today, expressed a shared pride in Tom’s having earned prestigious journalism awards, and a shared respect for his calm under fire. David recalled how, in Haiti, Tom de-escalated a showdown between rebels and rival gunmen, and was equally firm in shaming government spokespeople when they responded to fair, substantive questions by hiding behind such podium pablum as, “We don’t have anything on that.”

Of Tom, he wrote, “Whether covering wars or terror, or in your, yes, poetry, you never let life dim your optimism or learnings for the rest of us. Well done, Tom.”

When Tom left USA Today in 2005, he set about recreating a new professional life, first in public relations and corporate communications, and then as an independent and freelance journalist. 

His most recent coverage included serving as Pentagon reporter and commentator for Talk Media News, with radio stations across the country. He also worked at Trader Joe’s in Bethesda, where he was a popular employee and colleague, and found a warm circle of friends.

In the academic world, Tom was invited to create and teach a course at Washington and Jefferson College, his alma mater, combining journalism, current affairs and war zone survival skills - “Your 15 Minutes: Navigating the Checkpoints in Life.”

Tom also found a completely new voice in writing poetry and literary essays. His works were published nationally by The Bloom, the Flapper Press Poetry Café, and the Ravens Perch, among others.

In 2023, Tom was named Poet Laureate by the Rose Theater Co. of Washington, which hosted a “spoken word concert” at the Arts Club of Washington featuring Tom’s verses accompanied by works of musicians and composers inspired by his writing. 

“Poetry has been a surprise gift to me, and has lifted my writing in all ways, as well as my soul and smiles,” Tom emailed a friend after the concert. “It was beyond words (no pun intended) to hear those magnificent artists bring life to what I wrote.”

One of his final literary efforts, published July 24 in The Bloom, was titled seemingly, knowingly, “Pentimento Fading.”

“Some people and events have faded away completely,” Tom wrote, “never to return except in memories, where the rainbows are of colors never seen in reality. Now, my life is full of pentimento – a picture hidden behind a picture – a still moment that somehow moves.

“Lean your head to the sky/Close your eyes/To smell and listen/Then open when the/Morning’s music says now.”

Tom also is survived by his sister, Christina Scheib (Chuck), of Ocala, Fla.

Follow this link for information on the Celebration of Tom's Life, October 5th in Washington D.C. (Date for a celebration in Pittsburgh will be determined soon). https://tomsquitierimemorial.rsvpify.com