Walter 'Jeff' Storey, former Times Herald-Record editor, dies at 73
GOSHEN — Walter “Jeff” Storey, a longtime Hudson Valley resident and former executive editor of the Times Herald-Record, died of cancer at his home in Goshen on Friday. He was 73.
Storey first joined the Times Herald-Record in 1976 at the age of 27, and he held multiple positions over the years including Albany bureau chief, editorial page editor, managing editor and acting executive editor.
In an obituary, Storey's family wrote that he "had a scrupulous integrity and a relentless commitment to covering his community fully and fairly."
Peter Thompson, one of Storey's former Times Herald-Record colleagues, told the family that Storey instilled in him “a desire to get it right, to ask the right questions, to nail down the details and to write the story in an understandable way for the paper’s readers, not for the politicians or our sources.”
“Covering an issue with Jeff Storey as your editor always carried the unspoken reminder that he would settle for nothing short of the best,” Thompson told the family.
In the late-1990s, Storey decided to step away from journalism and enrolled at Cardozo Law School, said his wife, Barbara Strauss. Following his graduation, Storey worked as an assistant district attorney in New York City under Robert Morgenthau.
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"He loved being a lawyer, and he was proud to be a lawyer. He loved law school itself," Strauss said. "But Jeff was a guy who really, really loved the newsroom."
So, Strauss said, Storey returned to journalism in 2006 when he became executive editor of the New York Law Journal.
"A friend of mine once said that Jeff is one of those rare people who really likes his work," Strauss said. "And when he worked at the Record, and when he worked at the New York Law Journal, he loved his job."
Storey retired from the New York Law Journal in 2018. As a freelance, he wrote articles for the Record on topics from legal issues to entertaining feature stories, from an in-depth look into what the closure of the Indian Point power plant would mean for the power supply to a peek into the Catskills Resorts World Casino upon its opening.
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Over the years Storey and Strauss loved traveling and visited destinations including Burma, the Netherlands, Russia and Canada, but Strauss said Storey's favorite place to visit was always Quisisana, a lakeside resort in Maine where the couple vacationed for more than 20 years.
A native of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, Storey was the oldest of six children born to local historians and newspaper lovers Polly and Walter "Buzz" Storey. His family said Storey graduated at the top of his high school class before attending foreign service school at Georgetown University. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Georgetown and earned a master's degree in journalism from Pennsylvania State University.
In addition to his wife, Storey is survived by his stepdaughters, Hanna Ingber — a journalist Strauss said was inspired by Storey's love for the industry — and her children, Isaac and Aarav Yerasi; and Rebecca Ingber and her husband, Anton Metlitsky, and their children, Alma and Tess Metlitsky. He is also survived by his siblings Beth Evancheck and her husband Ron, Jeanne Baugh and her partner Jim Gallo, Phil Storey and his wife Sabine Ocker, and Ted Storey and his wife Cheryl, as well as nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his parents and his brother Jerry Storey.
A funeral was held Sunday morning at Donovan’s Funeral Home in Goshen. Afterwards, Storey was buried at the Temple Beth Shalom Cemetery in Florida, NY.
"It was beautiful," Strauss said. "It was very moving."
The family will be sitting shivah at Storey's home on Monday and Tuesday, and in Hanna Ingber’s home on Wednesday.
In lieu of flowers, the family requested donations be made in Storey’s memory to the American Civil Liberties Union — of which Storey was a member for more than 40 years — or the Goshen Humane Society.
Erin Nolan is an investigative reporter for the Times Herald-Record and USA Today Network. Reach her at enolan@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Times Herald-Record: Walter 'Jeff' Storey, former Times Herald-Record editor, dies at 73
