Background
Robert Reinhold was born on December 18, 1941 in New York, United States. He grew up in the Flatbush section near Brooklyn College where his father, Meyer Reinhold, taught classics.
Robert Reinhold was born on December 18, 1941 in New York, United States. He grew up in the Flatbush section near Brooklyn College where his father, Meyer Reinhold, taught classics.
After graduating from Midwood High School in Brooklyn, he won a scholarship to John Hopkins University, where he studied biology, chemistry and physics and became the editor in chief of the campus newspaper. While working on a master's degree in journalism at Columbia University, he was hired as a part-time copy boy at The New York Times in 1964.
Robert became a science reporter in 1967 and was one of the paper's most prolific writers from 1967 until 1994. Mr. Reinhold's first out-of-town assignment set the tone for his career. Sent to the South Pole to cover scientific developments there, he soon tired of the V.I.P. treatment at the United States Navy operations center at McMurdo Station.
In addition to his science articles, he filed an article on spending Christmas Day eating powdered mashed potatoes in the Antarctic and stopped off at Waikiki Beach on his way back home to New York.
The journalists from NY Times report that typical of his reporting was a 4,000-word piece in The Times in September 1986 that was the first to report on the impending financial downfall of former Governor John B. Connally of Texas, detailing everything down to the $899 queen-size rattan sleeper-sofa and $86 lamps for which Mr. Connally was overdue on payments to the Texana National Bank of Belton.
Mr. Reinhold left The New York Times in January 1994 after a 30-year career that included stints as a science writer and bureau assignments in Boston, Washington, Houston and Los Angeles. He covered the world of ideas from Boston and urban affairs and demographics in Washington; he was bureau chief in Houston and Los Angeles.
Robert Reinhold is highly appreciated for setting a standard for precise reporting as a science writer, national correspondent, and editorialist. Moreover, while Mr. Reinhold was best known for tough, analytical news reporting, a ferocious work schedule and an uncanny knack for getting to disasters sooner than anyone else, he was also known for his style.
Physical Characteristics: With his Armani suits and Gucci shoes, his measured subdued style and air of perpetual calm, Mr. Reinhold was a stark contrast to most of his rumpled, harried peers running around with their coffee-stained ties askew.
