Former BusinessWeek Washington bureau chief dies at 61

Lee Walczak, who worked at BusinessWeek for three decades and was its Washington bureau chief for 20 years, died Friday due to pancreatic cancer. He was 61, according to a story in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The story stated, “At Business Week, his career spanned 37 years, starting as an editorial trainee in the Washington bureau of McGraw-Hill World News, which included the magazine, in 1969. He was in the New York news bureau from 1970 until 1971, when he returned to Washington. He became bureau chief in 1986 and was named a senior editor of the magazine in 1989.

“‘Lee Walczak was a brilliant reporter and editor in the Washington bureau of Business Week magazine — first as White House correspondent, then as bureau chief,’ said former Business Week editor in chief Steve Shepard, now the dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York.

“‘He covered seven presidents, from Nixon to Bush II. He was an insightful political analyst, a fine writer and a strong manager. He cared passionately about the craft of journalism — and the people he worked with in both Washington and New York. Feisty, articulate, and tough-minded, Lee was a great journalist and a good friend.’

“Mr. Walczak was a sports car enthusiast who raced his Porsche cars at tracks all over the Northeast.”

Read more here. Walczak had left BusinessWeek in 2006 and joined Bloomberg News.