MEET THE PRESS
MATTHEW, MARK, LUKE, JOHN AND TIM RUSSERT

On Friday afternoon, June 13, Anita and I were about to leave to meet my sister and her daughter Kathy for dinner, when a friend called us with the news that Tim Russert, the moderator of Sunday Morning’s Meet the Press had collapsed and died at his desk as he was preparing for the program’s June 15th Father’s Day edition. We were shocked and saddened.

Russert and his wife Maureen had taken their son Luke to France to celebrate Luke’s graduation from Boston College, a Jesuit university in Boston. Russert returned to the USA a few days early to prepare for Sunday’s edition of Meet the Press. He died of a heart attack in his NBC office.

That his death shocked the entire nation is evidenced by the fact Keith Olbermann on his NBC program that night spent three hours interviewing people who had known Tim. They were from all parts of the political spectrum – Democrats, Republicans, Independents – Barack Obama, John McCain, Colin Powell, the Clintons, and many others. Tributes came from other newscasters such as Bob Schieffer and even Rush Limbaugh. Words of praise and condolences came from “The Boss” Bruce Springsteen, who early in his music career was booked by Russert for a concert at John Carroll University in Cleveland when Russert was a student there.

At various times, commentators pointed out that although Russert was from Buffalo, he got his bachelor’s degree from John Carroll University and his law degree from Cleveland State University.

On Sunday, June 15, the first Meet the Press airing after Russert's death was devoted entirely to a remembrance of Russert. With the moderator's chair empty, Tom Brokaw led a discussion among Russert's colleagues, including James Carville, Mary Matalin, Gwen Ifill, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Mike Barnicle, and Maria Shriver. Brokaw was so choked up at one point that he had one of the guests on the panel read what he had written. Clips from Russert's years as host of Meet the Press were included throughout the broadcast.

Doris Goodwin recalled that before Russert became a television personality he worked for Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who one evening took Russert to a dinner where several members of the prestigious Mensa Society would be in attendance. Only members with very high IQ’s are admitted to Mensa. Thinking that Russert might be intimidated by such an array of geniuses, Moynihan told Russert that he could learn what the Mensa members knew, but the Mensa people could never know what Russert knew.

When I was taking theology courses years ago, I learned that heaven is not a place where people sit around and argue about how many angels can sit on the head of a pin. Rather it is a place of discussion, people asking questions about God and eternity and truth. Something like Meet the Press with people whose names could be Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Tim.

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