Our newly updated NewsBios profile of Donald G. McNeil Jr., who covers infectious diseases for The New York Times, reveals a journalist with an unusually rich personal and professional background.
Since 1988, McNeil has penned well over 1,200 bylined articles for the Times. Among these are some well-crafted first-person stories that have included close-up narrations of his bungee-jumping off Victoria Falls; getting a finger tattoo in place of a wedding ring; whale watching; cataract surgery; attending a sleep clinic; serving in voluntary SARS quarantine; and his undying affection for the ABC television program, Supernanny and HBO’s Sex and the City.
But to me, the most memorable article he has written ran June 16, 2005, when he revealed some personal emotional insights, which journalists often do – if you know where to look.
McNeil, who turns 56 next month, talks about his mother, who starting at age 33 bore five children in eight years.
“She was actually a great 1950’s mom, with huge reserves of patience, cool Halloween costumes and memorable Christmases, but when our spats woke her at 5 a.m., she could lay about us with a pink slipper with a sole like a blackjack.
“When I was older, she broke my grandfather’s hand-carved Yale frat initiation paddle on me, and was so upset at having snapped the heirloom that she stabbed me with the handle.
“And yet I loved her.”
McNeil’s mother died when he was still a teen.
Photo: Sheila Hawkins Harris in 1953
The tale struck me not only as sad but called to mind the premature death of Sheila Hawkins Harris, mother of another New York Times health reporter, Washington-based Gardiner Harris. She died of cancer at age 50, when Gardiner was only 14 years old.
I’m not sure that Don and Gardiner even know that they – two Times health reporters – share such a painful adolescent loss. And I have no idea how each of their careers were or were not shaped by the loss of a parent at such tender ages.
What I do know, from having written or edited hundreds of NewsBios of influential health reporters, is that many of these journalists have had to cope with the premature loss of an immediate family member or have had to battle with serious health circumstances themselves.
The health beat is, for many, quite personal.
Since 1988, McNeil has penned well over 1,200 bylined articles for the Times. Among these are some well-crafted first-person stories that have included close-up narrations of his bungee-jumping off Victoria Falls; getting a finger tattoo in place of a wedding ring; whale watching; cataract surgery; attending a sleep clinic; serving in voluntary SARS quarantine; and his undying affection for the ABC television program, Supernanny and HBO’s Sex and the City.
But to me, the most memorable article he has written ran June 16, 2005, when he revealed some personal emotional insights, which journalists often do – if you know where to look.
McNeil, who turns 56 next month, talks about his mother, who starting at age 33 bore five children in eight years.
“She was actually a great 1950’s mom, with huge reserves of patience, cool Halloween costumes and memorable Christmases, but when our spats woke her at 5 a.m., she could lay about us with a pink slipper with a sole like a blackjack.
“When I was older, she broke my grandfather’s hand-carved Yale frat initiation paddle on me, and was so upset at having snapped the heirloom that she stabbed me with the handle.
“And yet I loved her.”
McNeil’s mother died when he was still a teen.
Photo: Sheila Hawkins Harris in 1953
The tale struck me not only as sad but called to mind the premature death of Sheila Hawkins Harris, mother of another New York Times health reporter, Washington-based Gardiner Harris. She died of cancer at age 50, when Gardiner was only 14 years old.
I’m not sure that Don and Gardiner even know that they – two Times health reporters – share such a painful adolescent loss. And I have no idea how each of their careers were or were not shaped by the loss of a parent at such tender ages.
What I do know, from having written or edited hundreds of NewsBios of influential health reporters, is that many of these journalists have had to cope with the premature loss of an immediate family member or have had to battle with serious health circumstances themselves.
The health beat is, for many, quite personal.
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