William F. O'Shaughnessy: A relentless Westchester champion who loved journalism | Forbes

He was an enduring and colorful champion – of the First Amendment, of radio broadcasting and journalism, of a fading New York missed by many, of style and wit and, perhaps most of all, of Westchester County.

He relentlessly hailed Old New York – the world of politicians like Nelson Rockefeller, Malcolm Wilson and Mario Cuomo and establishments like '21,' Le Cirque, the old Four Seasons and Neary's – people and places of a past he held dear.

He was proud to remind any and all that his WVOX and WVIP, New Rochelle and Westchester mainstays on the AM and FM dials, were among the last privately-owned broadcasting enterprises in greater New York.

He was dapper – the open collars, the throat-tabbed lapels, the Belgian shoes – and he was funny. He ceaselessly quipped and his nostalgic prose was peppered with playful salutes and charming asides.

He loved his "Golden Apple" – our county of Westchester – with a matchless ferocity and he relished his reign as dean of our press corps. He left a prolific body of work including books and hundreds, if not thousands, of editorials of the air. His correspondence with those of us in the press was even broader and always constant.

He was, as former Gov. Mario Cuomo once recalled, "a journalist, commentator, connoisseur, a strong political presence, and a forceful advocate of great causes."

He was William F. O'Shaughnessy and this week, at age 84, his labors came to a rest. Bill – or Mr. O, as he was known reverently by many – was sent forth Wednesday in Litchfield, Connecticut, where he enjoyed respites from his stations and New Rochelle for decades.

I first met Bill when he appeared in our Westchester Avenue newsroom in 2013. When he arrived, he strode across the place as if he'd just arrived, to a clamoring crowd, off the last Concorde from Charles DeGaulle – there were handshakes, hugs, smiles, winks and flashes of his signature Yankees World Series ring. He appeared as a guest on one of our earliest live video programs and vanished in a flash.

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Some years later, when I assumed leadership of our editorial board and our efforts to reengage with our readers across the northern suburbs, we hosted a coffee gathering in New Rochelle. Bill couldn't resist our appearance in his beloved city and arrived to broadcast live. He interviewed me about what we were doing with the opinion pages and, some weeks later, I was summoned to 1 Broadcast Forum – the epicenter of the O'Shaughnessy world from which all his journalism, his advocacy and his style entered orbit. I was invited to join the ranks of my many great colleagues who had held forth on his beloved WVOX air – friends like veteran columnist Phil Reisman, former staff writers Mark Lungariello and Jerry McKinstry and former lohud on-air anchor Matt Richter.

So began "Above the Fold," a radio show that explored the best of lohud and The Journal News and included weekly interviews with our scribes. I was the host when we launched in 2016 and later handed the baton to my friend and colleague Frank Scandale when my assignment evolved into a new role across the Hudson at NorthJersey.com and The Record.

Bill's correspondence was so constant – even after I left the immediate WVOX family – that it was hard to stay abreast of it. A search through my email inbox this week uncovered a New Yorker cartoon sent just after the arrival of our third daughter, Mae, this winter. The piece, inked by B. Smaller, is captioned: "Of course, he can't walk or talk or lift his head. Still, there are flashes of brilliance." He was equally adroit at managing his rolodex via Facebook, where his comments of congratulations about whatever our daughters had been up to over the last few years were endearing and appreciated.

Once you were in Bill's fold, you were never out. He was, as everyone knows and recalled this week, the penultimate supporter of Cuomo the father and Cuomo the son. In 2016, he was handing out "Make America Great Again" hats. And, of late, Bill had taken to writing short salutes to the friends and colleagues who were departing around him. Jimmy Neary, Ruth Kitchen, Brendan Byrne and Jimmy Breslin were among those he eulogized for our opinion pages in the last five years. We recently shared remembrances of Pat Barrett, the upstate executive who seemed to be everywhere in the political life of the Empire States in the run up to the turn of the millennium.

As much as I enjoyed Bill's capacity for remembrance, though, what I admired and respected most of all was his belief in the essential need for the community journalism we do. He believed first and foremost in the importance of a vibrant press. That conviction – along with his good humor, his grace and his friendship – will be sorely missed.

"Bill's enduring support of The Journal News, our journalism and our community will be impossible to replicate," Mary Dolan, our executive editor said this week. "He delighted in our dogged pursuit of the truth and of our role in ensuring the public's trust and the health of our Westchester County communities."

All of us in the lohud and Journal News family extend our deepest sympathies to our colleagues at WVOX and WVIP and to the O'Shaughnessy family.

Godspeed, Bill.

What my colleagues said

Phil Reisman: "One lesson I learned from him is that it’s important to say something kind about people you encounter. He was a charming guy and a master of flattery, some of which you could wink at. But he understood the power of making a compliment – a simple good word that can put a little brightness in the life of someone who may be having a lousy day With Bill O’Shaughnessy’s passing, we’ve lost a species of cat that is rare in the staid suburbs of Westchester County (which he lovingly called the 'Golden Apple') and by rare I mean that he was a larger-than-life figure who possessed wit, panache, a sense of class–and simply a whole array of personal attributes which he successfully packaged into brand that was promoted on the radio airwaves for more than five decades. I don’t think we’ll ever see another like him. To borrow one of his favorite words, Bill was sui generis."

Matt Richter: "Bill was a singular character in New York media and society. He was a living history of the golden years of the “golden apple” – Westchester County. He was a friend and confidante to the powerful and famous but a champion of the everyman. Bill reserved his airwaves for the community. Creating a platform dedicated to “vox populi”– the “voice of the people”. He gave an opinionated misanthrope like me an hour a week for almost 15 years. I know he frequently disagreed with me but never once asked me to soften my criticisms of his friends like Andrew Cuomo or Donald Trump. ..."

Mark Lungariello: "I asked Mr. O about dying in one of our chats. He used the phrase 'crapped out' instead of passing away, because he said that was how his attorney Jeff Bernbach always described dying. Mr. O mentioned former Gov. Mario Cuomo, as he often did.

" 'I once asked Mario Cuomo when he crapped out, how would he go?' O’Shaughnessy told me. 'He said, "I want to go after sliding headfirst into home plate on an inside-the-park homerun." '

"That’s when I asked him how he’d like to crap out. He lifted his hand as if he were writing in the air.

" 'Sitting, writing a piece, putting a graceful sentence together that just works,' he told me. 'Putting together a sentence that really had some sweetness in it. And bam – that's it.' "

Ed Forbes is a senior editor for the USA TODAY Network's Atlantic Group, overseeing opinion for news organizations in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. To get unlimited access to his insightful thoughts on how we live life in the Northeast, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: eforbes@gannett.com

Twitter: @edforbes

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: William F. O'Shaughnessy: Radio raconteur and Westchester's champion