Andy Viglucci (1927-2012)

Paul Grondahl contributes an obituary of Albany journalist and Writers Institute friend Andy Viglucci in today's Times Union:

ALBANY — Andy Viglucci was a newspaperman's newspaperman.

His dad worked in the circulation department of the Knickerbocker Press and later operated a newsstand on lower State Street that sold a dozen dailies, cigarettes and sundry items while exuding an aura of excitement that caught the son

"All Andy ever wanted to do was work for a newspaper," recalled William Kennedy who met Viglucci in 1952 when both worked on the staff of the Times Union.

Viglucci battled daily deadlines as he plied his craft for more than 50 years from Albany to San Juan, Puerto Rico. He was the longtime editor-in-chief of the San Juan Daily Star a 40,000-circulation English-language daily. He earned renown for writing fierce editorials that stood up to the powerful and smoked out corruption on the Caribbean island. The paper won a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 1961. More.