RIP Dick Blood

While writing a post for Interactive Intuition about the deteriorating quality of the NY Daily News I discovered that Richard 'Dick' Blood (left), best teacher I ever had, passed away in February of this year. Here's what I wrote about Blood on ii:

My 3.5 years at Seton Hall — I attended a small college in rural Pennsylvania for a semester in 1984 — were uneventful. Too much hair, misplaced priorities, post-adolescent foolishness. Despite my lackadaisical attitude, I was remarkably fortunate to be a journalism student at Seton Hall as Dick Blood was beginning his teaching career after leaving his post as City Editor of the NY Daily News. He mixed a passion for Watergate-era journalism with a bloodhound’s nose for bullshit. He told us tales of booze-soaked nights in the News’ midtown newsroom in a New England accent completely untainted by New Yawk-ese. He only taught at Seton Hall for two semesters before moving on to NYU and finally the vaunted Columbia School of Journalism, but I was blessed to have had classes with him in both of those semesters. A quick search reveals Blood passed away in February of this year at the age of 83. I can imagine his rage at how our modern era of clickthroughs and page views has resulted in his beloved Daily News turning into a gossip-filled, soft porn mess.

Blood wasn't just old school; he was an unapologetic iconoclast who'd lecture us on journalistic ethics and then brag about marrying his shrink. He'd share my work with the class -- still one of the highest compliments ever paid to my work -- and then share his opinion that I was a lazy, undisciplined wannabe. I wasn't surprised to learn of his passing but am saddened. Sometimes we get more luck than we deserve in this life. Getting taught by Dick Blood in his first-ever class wasn't just lucky -- it was a journalistic jackpot.