WINSTED — Monday’s death of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author David Halberstam, 73, produced an outpouring of grief and fond remembrances in the Laurel City. Halberstam died in a car accident in Menlo Park, Calif., about 25 miles south of San Francisco.
Halberstam, who attended grammar school here and spent his childhood summers in Winsted, was the author of 21 books, including 1972’s "The Best and the Brightest," about the Vietnam War. He was close to many townspeople, including lifelong friend Ralph Nader.
In an interview Tuesday, Nader said he was still shaken over the loss of his good friend.
"He was not just a great reporter, he was a great man," he said. "He was an analytic humanitarian — that’s what I would call him. You would see him on TV talking about the Iraq war and it was quite clear where he was going. It was not ‘shout TV.’ It was very analytical and very historically steeped. He understood history and he could comment so knowledgeably about Iraq and Vietnam. It’s such a tragedy."
Nader said Halberstam was a versatile writer whose passion for truth was matched only by his love of sports, and said his friend died while engaged in his craft. Halberstam was on his way to an interview with former Giants quarterback Y.A. Tittle for a book about the 1958 NFL championship game, which has been called "the greatest game ever played."
According to the Associated Press, Halberstam was being driven to the interview by a student at the University of California, Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, where Halberstam had just given a speech. The car was turning in an intersection when it was broadsided by another vehicle. A broken rib reportedly punctured Halberstam’s heart, killing him instantly. Halberstam’s driver, 26-year-old Kevin Jones, and the drivers of two other vehicles involved in the accident suffered minor injuries.
Fred Silverio of Winsted, a science teacher at Northwestern Regional High School, was a childhood friend of the author. He called Halberstam’s death a shocking and tragic loss.
"David was a very quiet man. He was not one to ever call attention to himself, but if you’ve ever seen him on television or give a talk, as he did just prior to his tragic death, you begin to realize how humble and learned a man he was."
Friends said a sad irony in the loss of Halberstam is the fact that his brother, cardiologist Michael Halberstam, also died tragically in 1980 when he surprised a burglar at his home in Washington, D.C.
After being shot in the chest, Michael Halberstam managed to drive himself to the hospital, but doctors were unable to save him. The killer, Bernard Welch, was sentenced to life in prison.
David Halberstam was born on April 10, 1934, in New York City, to Army surgeon Charles A. Halberstam and schoolteacher Blanche Levy Halberstam. Though he attended grammar school in Winsted and spent summers here, he attended high school in Yonkers, N.Y., Nonetheless, he was considered an honorary member of The Gilbert School’s class of 1951, and was invited to last year’s reunion.
Litchfield physician Robert Wilton said that Halberstam surprised him at the reunion when he was able to recall the Wiltons’ four-digit telephone number from the old days.
"His memory was extremely good," Wilton said. "He remembered an awful lot of people he had associations with as a young person and he didn’t get above himself. He was always friendly and down to earth when you talked to him. He was a great storyteller and he remembered so much about Winsted and growing up here."
Wilton recalled both David and Michael Halberstam as fun, interesting children who loved to swim and fish in Highland Lake.
"We just did what kids do at the time. We went down to Highland Lake all the time to go fishing and play games in the water."