Ernest B. Furgurson

Ernest B. "Pat" Furgurson, a distinguished journalist and graceful writer, died on July 13, 2025 at his home in Washington. He was 95.
He spent more than 40 years as a newspaperman, most of them at The Baltimore Sun, where he was a correspondent, Washington bureau chief, and national affairs columnist. He was the author of biographies of William Westmoreland and Jesse Helms and of four widely praised books on the Civil War, including Chancellorsville, 1863: The Souls of the Brave (1992) and Freedom Rising: Washington in the Civil War (2004). He also wrote scores of magazine articles for National Geographic, Reader's Digest, and other publications. His monthly essays for Mid-Atlantic Country, written at his cabin on a rocky, wooded hillside in Virginia, gave him special joy.
He liked to think of himself simply as a writer, a generalist whose interests varied from Southern politics to the fate of the planet to the habits of the scarlet tanager and the song of the wood thrush. The focus of his Sun column was often forgotten people in forgotten places.
Pat Furgurson was born in Danville, Virginia, where his father was one of six brothers who worked as printers. He never lost his fondness for his hometown, or his gratitude to teachers and mentors who had made a profound difference in his life. He attended Averett College in Danville and graduated from Columbia College in 1952 and, a year later, from the Columbia School of Journalism. After serving from 1953 to 1955 as an officer in the Marine Corps, stationed in Japan and Hawaii, he worked for papers in Roanoke and Richmond before joining the Sun in 1956.
His assignments at the Sun included local political reporter, Moscow bureau chief, Saigon correspondent, White House correspondent, Capitol Hill correspondent, and columnist. He was the Washington bureau chief for 12 years. In 1970, his column was syndicated by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. He retired from the Sun in 1992.
He was a member of the Gridiron Club and the Cosmos Club and was active in the Civil War Preservation Trust.
His first marriage, to Mary Louise Stallings, ended in divorce. He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Cassie Thompson Furgurson; a daughter, Elisabeth Glyn Pogue of Lake Ridge, Virginia; and three grandsons, Jesse L. Furgurson, James S. Pogue, and Kemper D. Pogue. His brother, Roger G. Furgurson, died in 2020. His son, E.B. "Pat" Furgurson III, a longtime reporter for the Annapolis Capital Gazette, died in 2024.
Services will be private.