Newsday consumer reporter dies at age 61

Hank Gilgoff, a Newsday reporter who spearheaded the paper’s consumer coverage for decades, died Sunday from a rare liver disorder, according to a story in Monday’s paper. He was 61.

Reporters Jennifer Smith and Erik German wrote, “Those who worked with Gilgoff remembered him as a meticulous, dogged reporter who would patiently sift through the fine print that baffles many people — product warranties, insurance claims and the like — and then challenge companies on their own policies.

“‘Henry had a knack for explaining to people what happens when you don’t do what you’re supposed to do and he had a way of informing us all how to extricate ourselves,’ said Charles Gardner, director of the Suffolk County Office of Consumer Affairs, who worked with Gilgoff for more two decades. ‘He had a way of explaining things in everyday language that everyone could understand.’

“In the years that Gilgoff covered consumer affairs for Newsday, he wrote about everything from lost luggage to a run on a Waldbaum’s Thanksgiving promotion that left several customers one turkey short for the holiday. Recently he profiled the travails of an East Atlantic Beach family whose house — which had been converted to natural gas over a decade ago — was flooded with 222 gallons of heating oil because of a botched delivery.

“‘Henry strongly believed that consumers need a voice and needed somebody to take up their cause,’ said Steve Sink, former Newsday business editor and a colleague of Gilgoff’s for more than 15 years.”

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