Pulitzer Prize-Winning Columnist Dies At 79

Murray Kempton, a Pulitzer Prize winner who championed underdogs and punctured the powerful in columns of elegant, thickly textured and at times baroque prose, died Monday. He was 79.

Kempton, who had been ill with cancer, died in a Manhattan nursing home. His last column appeared Jan. 15 in Newsday.

He spent the greater part of his 55-year career in New York, first at the New York Post and later at Newsday, where he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, journalism’s top honor, in 1985. Until just a few years ago, he regularly was seen pedaling his three-speed bicycle to news events.

Kempton was awarded the Pulitzer for “witty and insightful reflection on public issues.” He also received George Polk awards in 1967 and 1988.

Kempton’s survivors include a daughter, Durgananda; three sons, Arthur, David and Christopher; and a companion, Barbara Epstein.