Jules J. Witcover ’49, JRN’51, Political Reporter and Columnist

Jules J. Witcover ’49, JRN’51, a political reporter and syndicated columnist who covered presidential races and political affairs for nearly seven decades, died on Aug. 16, 2025, at his home in Washington, D.C. He was 98.

Witcover interpreted America’s political scene as an analyst and eyewitness to history. He began covering presidential campaigns in 1960; recorded the rise and fall of President Richard M. Nixon; and was steps away when a gunman killed Robert F. Kennedy in a Los Angeles hotel in 1968.

His widely syndicated daily column, “Politics Today,” appeared in The Washington Star from 1977 to 1981, when the newspaper folded. It then ran in The Baltimore Sun (and as many as 140 other papers) until the column was terminated due to cutbacks in 2005; it was later syndicated three times a week by Tribune Media Services. Written jointly with Jack Germond, “Politics Today” gave Witcover an outlet to register strong opinions; after Germond retired in 2001, Witcover wrote the column solo until he retired in 2022.

Witcover also covered politics for the Newhouse News Service, The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post, as well as for several magazines, including The New Republic, Saturday Review and The Nation. He wrote more than a dozen books on politics and politicians, and five on other subjects.

Witcover was born in Union City, N.J., and showed an early interest in writing. A basketball teammate at Union Hill H.S. persuaded Witcover to apply to the College, which he attended for a semester before joining the Navy. He then re-enrolled after the war ended. He covered sports for Spectator and worked part time at The Daily News. After graduation Witcover spent a year at The Hackensack Star-Telegram before earning a master’s from the Journalism School.

After a year as a reporter for The Providence Journal in Rhode Island, Witcover joined The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J., published by S.I. Newhouse. Witcover’s plan to be a sports reporter morphed into political reporting; he said the combative nature of both fields made politics just as much fun.

In 1954, Witcover was promoted to the Washington bureau of Newhouse Newspapers as a political correspondent. He covered John F. Kennedy’s victory over Nixon in 1960 and became chief political writer for the Newhouse publications in 1962. He reported on major events, including the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy’s assassination and the civil rights movement; he interviewed both Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X in 1963.

In 1968, Witcover covered Robert F. Kennedy’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination and was given access to his closed-door strategy talks. He was with the candidate when, shortly after he won the California primary, Kennedy was fatally shot. It was, Witcover wrote, “another hour of mindless tragedy in a nation that cannot or will not keep weapons of death from the hands of madmen who walk its streets.”

A year later, he published his first book, 85 Days: The Last Campaign of Robert Kennedy, and in 1970 he joined the Washington bureau of The Los Angeles Times. After Nixon’s 1972 re-election, Witcover joined The Washington Post, where he reported on Nixon’s fall in the Watergate scandal, the presidency of Gerald R. Ford and the 1976 election of Jimmy Carter.

Witcover is a survived by his wife, author Marion Elizabeth Rogers; children from his first marriage to Marian Laverty (they divorced in 1990), son Paul, and daughters, Amy Witcover-Sandford and Julie; son Peter Young, from a later relationship with Amy Young; and three grandchildren.