Sunday, September 20, 2015

RIP Leonard Neft

Leonard Neft, a former obituary writer for the San Jose Mercury News, was identified this week as the third victim of a wildfire tearing through Northern California. He was 69.

In 1983, Neft told the Mercury News' Sunday magazine that despite tradition, obits shouldn't be reserved for famous people.

"I feel I can do an obit on a housewife who's never done anything," Neft said in the article. "It's a challenge to find out what people did that was interesting in their lives."

FMI: Click here.

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Escaping to the death beat

What prompted Steve Miller to become an obituary writer? The September 11th terrorist attacks. In fact, he was in the South Tower working as a Wall Street technologist that day. Here’s his story.