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Washington (dpa) - R W Apple, a veteran New York Times reporter who wrote about world events from more than 100 countries and covered 10 US presidential elections, died Wednesday, the newspaper said. He was 71.
Apple, a colourful figure rooted in an earlier era of journalism, died in Washington of complications of cancer of the thorax, the Times said.
Known as Johnny Apple, the Akron, Ohio, native joined the Times in 1963 and became one of its most recognizable names and a mainstay in the US capital's social circles.
He covered wars in Vietnam and elsewhere, the Watergate scandal that toppled US president Richard Nixon in 1974 and US politics as the paper's Washington bureau chief. As a well-known gourmet, he also wrote guides to food and drink in the US and Europe.
Born Raymond Walter Apple Jr, he was Times bureau chief in Lagos, Nairobi, Saigon, Moscow and London.
"He remained a colourful figure as new generations of journalists around him grew more pallid, and his encyclopaedic knowledge, grace of expression - and above all his expense account - were the envy of his competitors, imitators and peers," the Times wrote Wednesday.
Survivors include his second wife, Betsey Pinckney Brown. Funeral arrangements were not immediately known.
Copyright 2006 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
