Obituary: Victor Simpson, veteran foreign correspondent who became a personal friend of Pope John Paul II

 ROME – Victor Simpson, who has died at age 84, was a quintessential wire service journalist of the old school whose dedication to beating deadlines might have earned him a role in the Packard Reynolds novel ‘the Kansas City Milkman.’ As news editor of The Associated Press bureau in the Eternal City from the late 1970s, he was a meticulous mentor for generations of young reporters who went on to illustrious careers in newspapers.

 Seated in the ‘slot’ at the centre of the busy newsroom in the AP Rome bureau in the Palazzo Doria Pamphili looking over the Piazza Grazioli, Victor practised what he preached when a big news story broke, cranking out crisp urgent dispatches and bulletins. The secret to winning the play against arch rival United Press International was to keep copy tight and never exceed 600 words in a dispatch, meaning it easily could be squeezed into afternoon newspapers in the United States, he would tell young reporters.

 I had the honour of working for Victor for two years in the early 80s before I was hired by UPI, where another of the best in the business news editors, Charlie Ridley, continued my journalistic education. Correspondents in the AP bureau in the 1980s included the likes of Juan Carlos Gumucio, soon to be a war correspondent in the Middle East for the AP and later the London Times and El Pais, Bob McCartney, who had a star-spangled career at the Washington Post, John Winn Miller, Clara Hemphill, and many others.

 In addition to running the news coverage for Italy and north Africa, Victor specialised in reporting on the Vatican, and by the time he retired, as bureau chief, in his 70s, he had made over 100 foreign trips with five different popes, a record surpassed only by Mexican writer Valentina Alazraki.

 More than 20 years after I arrived in Rome as a young reporter, I found myself working with Victor in Bethlehem during Pope Benedict XVI’s sensitive pastoral visit to the Holy Land. We and other reporters were served a delicious Palestinian meal of West Bank specialities, a change from our lunches at trattoria in Rome.

 Victor and his wife, Daniela Petroff, an accomplished fashion writer, were struck by tragedy in 1985 when their young daughter Natasha was killed by Abu Nidal arab terrorists at Leonardo Da Vinci Airport as their family as waiting to fly to New York on vacation.

 Despite that terrible experience, Victor in a gripping memoir published recently, Life of a Reporter, recounted that in some measure he came to terms eventually with their loss because he had no choice if he were to go on living. Among those who sought to comfort him was Pope John Paul II, who became a personal friend of the Jewish chronicler from New York.

 In his last weeks of ill health Victor expressed concern for the future of journalism, but also for the destiny of the United States under its current mercurial presidency. He somewhat regretted also, he said, that his adopted home of Italy punches below its weight on the international stage.

 In recent years Victor had been working on a history of Alto Adige, the German speaking area of Italy, where he and Daniela had a holiday home. He was an active member of the Foreign Press Association in Rome, serving on its governing council and played regularly in the Club’s annual tennis championship.

 In his last days he thought nostalgically of his colleagues at the association. If you had worked for Victor, even if only briefly, he never forgot you, and continued to follow his favourite reporters' careers with interest and avuncular advice for the rest of their lives.

 “Before I leave – and I mean leave literally,” he said, “I want to go to the Stampa Estera.” Unfortunately it was not possible.

 He is survived by his daughter Deborah and son Michael. Daniela pre-deceased him earlier this year.

 Victor L. Simpson , born in New York May 11, 1942.

 Died of cancer in Rome, Sept. 13, 2026.