Longtime T&G reporter and editor William Clew has died
William T. Clew, a respected journalist for decades at the Telegram & Gazette and the Catholic Free Press, has died. He was 94.
Clew, the son of a newspaper editor, worked his way up from a reporter in the Fitchburg bureau to news editor of The Evening Gazette.
Along the way he gained the admiration of readers and the respect of those in the newsroom. He hired and trained countless reporters, sharing his love of the craft while shaping careers.
He passed away Monday morning at the Jewish Healthcare Center in Worcester, according to his sister, Elizabeth (Betsy) Clew Kampmeinert of Pittsburgh. A funeral will be held in January, she said. He leaves a longtime close friend, Patty Biron.
In a 2018 interview, former T&G columnist Dianne Williamson said this about her mentor: “Bill Clew was both imposing and down to earth, an editor and father figure, a guy who always put the reader first and drummed into our young heads that journalism isn't always about Watergate-level scoops, but about the communities we cover and the people who inhabit them. I learned so much from him and am eternally grateful for his guidance.”
Clew, of Dudley, was a reporter and editor at the T&G for 37 years, proudly sharing his start date: Oct. 3, 1954, in the Fitchburg bureau, above the Saxon Theater. He then spent more than two decades at the Catholic Free Press.
He was inducted into the New England Newspaper Hall of Fame in 2018.
A Mass will be held in Clew's memory at 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 6 at Christ the King Church, 1052 Pleasant St., Worcester.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the American Cancer Society, 3 Speen St., Suite 250, Framingham 01701 or to Eisenberg Assisted Living, 631 Salisbury St., Worcester 01609.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Longtime T&G reporter and editor William Clew has died
