Mike McGovern

MCGOVERN--Mike, died in New York City on September 11, 2019, at age 80. He was an investigative reporter, Nieman Fellow at Harvard, and cookbook writer. Born in Chicago, he returned to that city after service in the Marine Corps, to be a reporter for the Chicago American newspaper. An intrepid reporter, he went undercover to ride with the notorious biker gang the Hells Angels; he persuaded Chicago cops to let him ride with them on raids. He moved to New York and worked for the New York Daily News. He was selected to be a Nieman Journalism Fellow at Harvard. His first literary guest at Harvard was the gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, who arrived in Cambridge in a convertible tossing out beer cans like a rose queen. Mike rode a bike all over Manhattan, often with grocery bags swinging from the handlebars. He was an enthusiastic cook and wrote a rollicking cookbook in tribute to Kinky Friedman, "Eat, Drink, and Be Kinky." Smart, talented, mischievous and a voracious reader, Mike could recite plot and character details for a vast library of books. He was also an unnerving poker player. Mike had a natural gift for writing; he never wrote so much as a boring Subject line on an email. Gone too soon and too fast. Wheels up, sweet Mike.