Irving Levine, 1922-2009, became one of the country’s top newsmen in the radio and television fields. He gained fame as a reporter, photographer, and commentator while on overseas assignments and was best known as an NBC News correspondent. His career spanned nearly forty-five years.

Born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island on August 26,1922 to Ukrainian immigrants Joseph and Emma (Raskin) Levine. He attended Pawtucket public schools before entering Brown University. His first job out of college was for the Providence Journal writing obituaries, but he soon entered the United State Army. Following WWII, he entered Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. From 1947 to 1948 he was foreign news editor for the International News Service, and chief of the Vienna (Austria) bureau from 1948 to 1950. In 1950 he began his long and distinguished association with NBC News.

While working for NBC he reported from more than two dozen countries. He was war correspondent in Korea (1950-1952); radio anchor for World News Roundup, New York City (1953-1954); chief correspondent NBC, Moscow (1955-1959), being the first American news correspondent ever stationed there; Rome (1959-1971); London (1967-1968) and chief economics correspondent Washington (1971-1995). In 1995 he retired from NBC.

In retirement he was associated with Lynn University, Boca Raton, Florida as the Dean of the College of International Communications. He also served as a lecturer to universities, business groups, and cruise ships, and appeared on television as a commentator for the Public Broadcasting Systems television network and the Nightly Business Report.

Levine was the author of four books including “Main Street, USSR,” published in 1959, which made the New York Times bestseller list. He died on March 27, 2009 in Washington, D.C. survived by his wife Nancy Cartmell Jones, whom he married in 1957, and their three children.

Russell J. DeSimone