Auto reporter Tierney dies from Parkinson’s disease

Christine Tierney

Longtime automotive industry reporter Christine Tierney died last week at the age of 60 from Parkinson’s disease.

Tierney covered the auto industry for nearly 20 years from Paris, Frankfurt and Detroit, winning awards for breaking news and in-depth projects. I

She wrote stories ranging from GM’s bankruptcy to the breakup of DaimlerChrysler and a resurgent Volkswagen’s goal to supplant Toyota as the industry leader.

In recent years, she wrote for Forbes.com and focused on Japanese and German automakers and traveled to China to report on the emergence of what quickly became the world’s biggest auto market.

Before Forbes, Tierney worked briefly for The Wall Street Journal in Frankfurt. She spent nearly 10 years with the Detroit News and was part of a team that won a Gerald Loeb Award.

Tierney also covered the auto beat in Detroit and Frankfurt for BusinessWeek magazine.

She spent 13 years in Reuters’ offices in New York (1987-1990), Montreal (1990-1992), Mexico City (1992-1994), Paris (1994-1999) and Frankfurt (1999-2003).

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.