By Brian C. Mooney and Mark Feeney, Globe Staff
| January 24, 2005
David Nyhan, whose fiercely liberal columns for The Boston
Globe made him a force in local and national politics even as
his generous nature won him a legion of friends, died early yesterday
at his home in Brookline, apparently of a heart attack. He was
64.
Mr. Nyhan was stricken yesterday after coming in from shoveling
snow. He was rushed by his wife, Olivia, to Beth Israel Deaconess
Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
Mr. Nyhan retired from the Globe in 2001 after 32 years, but
he continued to write a twice-weekly column for four daily newspapers
owned by the Eagle-Tribune
Co. north of Boston. He was scheduled to leave this week
for a monthlong trip to Sri Lanka to accompany and write about
a group of about 50 nurses and doctors taking part in tsunami
relief efforts.
"In his long career at the Globe, David Nyhan made many
important contributions," said Alfred S. Larkin Jr., spokesman
for the Globe. "Perhaps most visibly, he was in the forefront
of a generation of reporters and columnists who built the Globe's
reputation for top-notch political coverage and commentary. He
was a fun-loving, gregarious man who seemed to know virtually
everyone in politics, whether it was at City Hall, the State
House, or in our nation's capital."
"He was a giant in more ways than one," said Martin
F. Nolan, a friend and Globe colleague for many years, referring
to Mr. Nyhan's athletic 6-foot, 4-inch frame. "In a business
that was so fierce and competitive, I never met anyone who was
more generous," said Nolan, who was chief of the Globe's
Washington bureau when Mr. Nyhan arrived there in 1974 and promptly
began breaking stories about the House Judiciary Committee's
impeachment proceedings against President Richard M. Nixon.
Senator Edward M. Kennedy, whom Mr. Nyhan admired but needled
from time to time, said in a statement issued by his office:
"A Nyhan column over breakfast was a perfect way to start
the day, even if it caused a little sudden indigestion."
Mr. Nyhan, Kennedy said, "could get to the heart of the
matter faster than anyone I have known . . . with a sharp wit
and a unique style."
Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino called Mr. Nyhan "big in
stature, but gentle in voice. When he spoke, he spoke the voice
of reason."
After retiring from the Globe, Mr. Nyhan straddled the worlds
of journalism and politics. He had helped Menino with speech-writing
and with the city's proposal that brought last year's Democratic
National Convention to Boston.
In his columns, Mr. Nyhan's expansive prose generally reflected
his liberal, populist political views. But as a reporter, he
was known for an accurate and seemingly effortless style on deadline. Continued...