TIMOTHY J. RUSSERT
1950-2008

Beloved John Carroll University alumnus Tim Russert ’72 died of a heart attack Friday, June 13.  He was 58 years old.

“The entire John Carroll University community is deeply saddened by the loss of this distinguished alumnus. Tim exemplified the Jesuit Catholic mission. He lived by a simple philosophy – and that is, there is a world beyond yourself.  Tim truly was a man for others.  Our thoughts and prayers are with his family,” said Rev. Robert L. Niehoff, S.J., John Carroll University president.

Tim Russert was an American icon and one of the most trusted figures in the media. As senior vice president and Washington bureau chief for NBC News since 1991, Mr. Russert was a magnetic presence as the managing editor and moderator of “Meet the Press,” the longest-running, most-popular and most-influential of the Sunday morning political talk shows.

Mr. Russert was a dominant force in the news media. He and his colleague Brian Williams co-moderated the Democratic Debate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton last February in Cleveland.

When people remember the Bush/Gore cliffhanger in November 2000, most of them see Mr. Russert's face and hear his voice as he guided the nation through that thicket.

Son of the now-famous “Big Russ,” a Buffalo, New York, truck driver, the younger Russert was president of the Student Union at John Carroll, and a respected campus figure during a tumultuous era characterized by Vietnam War protests. He won the Robert Beaudry Man of the Year Award in his senior year and received an honorary doctorate in 1997.

He loved John Carroll and was an alumni stalwart who supported the University in many ways, including a special appearance in Cleveland last year to raise funds for John Carroll’s scholarship initiative for low-income families.

John Carroll’s president, Rev. Robert L. Niehoff, SJ, shared his thoughts on Tim Russert’s passing in a message sent to the University community on Friday, June 20, 2008. Read it here. For a first-person account of Tim Russert's memorial celebration in Washington, by his classmate John Marcus '72, click here.

View John Carroll's tribute that appeared in the Sunday, June 22, 2008, Cleveland Plain Dealer.