Jules Edward Loh,
NEW YORK (AP) — For most of his four decades as a reporter, Jules Edward Loh traveled the United States, reaching every state and using his honeyed Georgia accent to charm his way into the hearts, minds and lives of Americans, famous and obscure.
To write "Lords of the Earth," a 1971 book about the Navajo Indians of Arizona, he became so close to tribal elders that they named him Poputiney, meaning "Many Pencils." Back in New York, his irreverent colleagues at The Associated Press dubbed him "Loh, the poor Indian."
Despite numerous journalism awards by the time he retired in 1997, Loh said of himself, "I am a reporter, period. They can chisel that on my gravestone."
Loh, 79, died early Sunday at his home in Tappan, N.Y. He suffered complications after recent abdominal surgery, said Eileen Loh, his daughter.
Born May 29, 1931, in Macon, Ga., Jules Loh served in the U.S. Air Force, attended Georgetown University and joined the AP in Louisville, Ky., in 1959.
During 39 years with the news agency, he covered earthquakes in Alaska, California and Mexico City, space shots, political campaigns and both Kennedy assassinations, delivering the story in fast, facile prose.
"He was the best. He could do anything,"
Loh's wife, the former Jean Brown, died in 2002. Their eight children survive, along with 17 grandchildren and one great grandchild. Another grandson died in infancy.
Also surviving are a sister, Anne Bosquet, and a brother, Gen. John Michael Loh, a retired U.S. Air Force vice chief of staff, who is credited with conceiving the original design of the F-16 fighter-bomber.