Politics | 06/13/2008 4:07 pm

wowOwow Salutes Our Friend, Tim Russert

By The Staff at wowOwow.com

Sadly, while sitting in the wowOwow offices on this summer Friday, we just heard the news flash that NBC News’ beloved Tim Russert died in his office today, June 12, 2008. He was 58.

Tim was a colleague to many of the wowOwow contributors, and it is with great sorrow that we announce his passing. The longtime host of NBC’s “Meet The Press,” he held court on the most successful Sunday morning news program of his time. He was also senior vice president and Washington bureau chief of NBC News.

Tim leaves behind his wife, Maureen Orth, a writer for Vanity Fair magazine; his son, Luke; and his beloved "Big Russ," the father who he regularly spoke of on air, and who he visited just last weekend. Our hearts go out to the entire Russert family in this hour.

The following is a memo sent to all of NBC Universal announcing the tragic news:

It is with incredible sadness that we share the heartbreaking news that Tim Russert passed away today, suddenly. We have lost a beloved member of our NBC Universal family and the news world has lost one of its finest. The enormity of this loss cannot be overstated. More than a journalist, Tim was a remarkable family man. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Maureen; their son, Luke; and Tim’s entire extended family.

Read more about: Meet the Press, Tim Russert

119 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

I have been so sad since hearing the news about Tim Russert. I have watched him on Meet the Press since he started as well as watching his show on MSNBC. I had a secret crush on him! Smart men are so sexy and he was one smart guy! My nana died at his age and of the same coronary thrombosis. My prayers go out to his wife, son, father, and other family members.

By Rita T on 06/13/2008 8:03 pm

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It is so amazing how many people’s lives that he touched. What a great man.

By Frannie Em on 06/13/2008 8:06 pm

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Tim Russert always struck me as a man of honor and he will be missed among the many talking heads. My Dad died at 58 of a heart attack also doing the work he loved, teaching. I hope that someday his family can understand (as we tried to) that that is a gift, even if it was WAY too soon. Comfort to all those who loved and respected him.

By judy smith on 06/13/2008 8:17 pm

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I sit here sadden by American’s lost this day. I’m stunned and can’t move. He’s gone. I sit here knowing that I will never hear his voice again. There’s no other person like Tim. He gave so much of himself to deliver a service unsurpassed. As I watched Keith Olberman speak tribute, I actually shed a tear. Not too many people are able to move me this way. Tim, we love you. We love your work. We love your heart. Fair winds and following seas. May God Bless you, your family, and everyone close to you. Their pain is so great. Yet, I feel God knew this was your time, no matter how cruel it is for us.

By Karl Clark on 06/13/2008 9:22 pm

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I’m a news & politics junkie. If I didn’t work night shift Saturday, Sunday morning would find me glues to the TV for all the political interview shows, including “Meet the Press”. It will be hard for NBC to fill his considerable shoes. “Meet the Press” won’t be the same without Tim Russert.

By Donna H on 06/13/2008 9:29 pm

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Like Tim Russert, I grew up in Buffalo, but North Buffalo, a very different place from South Buffalo. South Buffalo was really a mill town, largely dependent on Bethlehem Steel Mill. It’s a long way from South Buffalo to Washington D.C., where he was a bureau chief. But he never forgot his roots and the priorities instilled there. A giant of a man, he will be missed.

By Flora Dora on 06/13/2008 9:36 pm

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Am watching Charlie Rose’s tribue to him as I write - don’t have words.

By Maggi D on 06/13/2008 10:32 pm

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And while watching Charlie Rose last night I was struck by Tim’s utter devotion to his Dad who during Tim’s formative years worked two jobs and on weekends did jobs around the house and I thought how he taught Tim, not in words, but in deeds what love entails. Here was a man, Big Russ, who never told Tim he loved him until much later in Tim’s life and it had such an impact. I immediately thought of the poem by Robert Hayden: THOSE WINTER SUNDAYS Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him. I’d wake and hear the cold spintering, breaking, When the rooms were warm, he’d call, and slowly I would rise and dress, fearing the chronic angers of that house, Speaking indifferently to him, who had driven out the cold and polished my good shoes as well. What did I know, what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices? But Tim knew and shouted to the world about it and now the world mourns for this beloved man.

By phyllis Doyle Pepe on 06/14/2008 8:35 am

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Phyllis: sometimes, lady fair, you take my breath away.

By Frank Peterson on 06/14/2008 10:41 am

Phyllis, The message of Tim Russert’s life is being driven home this Father’s Day weekend to a nation that sorely needs it. That is yet another gift of an ‘everyman’ who became one of the world’s 100 most influential people by doing the right thing to the best of his ability. Loved the poem and it reminded me of we’d be staying in freezing rustic cabins on ski trips it would be Dad who got up to build a fire in the pot-belly stove to ensure we were warm, and Dad who took care of Mom and us e kids when we all came down with a virulent flu one year, bringing us us 7-Ups “sip-it slowly’ and cold compresses. All those little things to be thankful for while people are alive to hear it.

By To the beach ~~~ on 06/14/2008 1:01 pm

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it was my mom i’d hear turning the morning’s ashes into a warming fire that allowed us to get out of our beds and go down to the barn to milk the cows. dad was great in his own way. i’m like dad: i can’t get up first thing in the morning. he died in 1992, occasioning the only overnight call i got from mom. dad was our human side; mom was our disciplined side.

By mary lou s on 06/15/2008 11:06 pm

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Phyllis, Thank you for that. That is beautiful.

By Frannie Em on 06/14/2008 3:20 pm

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I love Robert Hayden; he was a member of our Faith Community, and now young poets go to writing camps because f a scholarship; I was equally shocked and saddened by Russert’s passing. More particularly, my thoughts flew to his wife and son. This is hard. I hope they find strength, and I’ll make that, I am sure they will because many many people will pray for them. Someone wrote something snide about Chris Matthews trying to edge his way into Tim Russert’s job, and I thought, how awful. Matthews was grief stricken. His colleagues were truly berift, a lot of huanity behind the political scrabble dabble. The shock too of his being young. My mom died of cerebral hemhorrage at 50; it takes a while. I think we are young until we are 75, 80. Blessings and strength to all who grieve.

By Esther Bradley-DeTally on 06/15/2008 12:24 pm

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My initial thoughts are of Mr. Russert’s family. I am sorry for his family and their loss. My second thought is… he was a ball breaker … and I like that. He has left behind him a legacy of ball breakin’ news busters. And for that we are all the better. The morbid … did you know they (news people, media, me and you) all sit like vultures … did you know any one person that had any sort of impact on todays society the obit for this person has already been written for quite some time … for instance let us say that the lovely *Paris Hilton should pass away this evening … guess what … they already got in for her. What if we could write our own obit, death story and follow up commentary?! What would yours say? *god forbid … no matter how she is perceived she is my sister.

By Liza D 08 .... beta on 06/13/2008 10:38 pm

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This is such sad news. I am as devastated as if I’d lost a personal friend and I suppose it is because there are so few public figures I admire that I read his books and felt a real connection with him and his family. He was so real and so full of love and life. He did a tremendous amount in his 58 years on earth, but we still lost him way to soon.

By G V on 06/13/2008 11:23 pm