While this obit from the Harford Courant is better than the basic ones from Florida, they hardly do justice to Bob Waters …especially in regards to his rise from beat reporter around Hartford, CT, to an award-winning by-line writer on insurance industry and banking issues in Connecticut, to “the” Washington correspondent for the paper in 16 short years. He had many “scoops” during his time in DC because of his positive relationship with the Connecticut delegation in Washington.
When he finally retired in ’87, he was the leading New England reporter on the defense industry and was highly regarded by all the politicians in the State.
Jim Byrnes
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Bob Waters was a fine journalist, and one of the reasons he was so effective was that he had a good understanding of his role as Washington correspondent. He was there to cover the Connecticut delegation, period — not to attend presidential news conferences, not to report on government matters that didn’t have much to do with Connecticut.
AP and UPI did that, so there was no reason for Bob to do it too. He didn’t care about having his byline on a story that was being reported by dozens of others. What he did do was to thoroughly cover Connecticut’s senators and representatives, and report on issues (such as those involving the aerospace industry) that had a direct impact on our state. And he did it superbly.
In the post-Waters years, The Courant had some fine reporters in Washington. But they always seemed to want to cover the “big story,” and as a result, the important local angle was sometimes forgotten.