Victor K. McElheny, the celebrated journalist and author who founded MIT's Knight Science Journalism Program more than 40 years ago and served for 15 years as its director, died on July 14 in Lexington, Massachusetts, after a brief illness. He was 89. Born in Boston and raised in Poughkeepsie, New York, McElheny's storied journalism career spanned seven decades, during which he wrote for several of the nation's leading newspapers and magazines, penned three critically acclaimed books, and produced groundbreaking coverage of national stories ranging from the Apollo moon landing to the sequencing of the human genome. He is remembered as a steadfast champion of science journalism who eloquently made the case for the profession's importance in society and worked tirelessly to help the field ' and its practitioners ' thrive. 'Victor was a pioneering science journalist, at publications that included The Charlotte Observer, Science, and The New York Times, and an author of note, especially...
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