Tom Baldwin, veteran journalist, foreign correspondent, dies

NEW HOPE, Pa. – Tom Baldwin, a longtime journalist whose career included a stint as a Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, has died. He was 71.

Baldwin, of New Hope, Pennsylvania, died Tuesday at an area hospital, his family said.

He got his start in in journalism at The Press of Atlantic City in New Jersey, before moving on to the AP bureau in Philadelphia in 1973. He later transferred to the AP in New York and then to the Boston bureau, where he was editor.

In 1980, Baldwin achieved a career goal by being named a foreign correspondent for the AP, reporting from the Middle East. His wife, Toni Donina, also worked there as a radio reporter.

He reported on the assassination of Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat, the rise of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the 1982 war in Lebanon and the Iran-Iraq War.

He later transferred to Johannesburg, South Africa, where he reported on the apartheid regime.

After leaving the AP in 1986, Baldwin continued his journalism career, working for a shipping newsletter and several newspapers in New Jersey, including The Trentonian and the Home News-Tribune.

He was the author of a book, “Big Storm, Small Ship,” about riding out a hurricane on a container ship in the Atlantic.

He retired from the news business at the age of 67.

Survivors include a brother, his former wife and two daughters.

Baldwin’s family said that donations can be made in his honour to the Buzzards Bay Coalition, which protects the water quality in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, where he loved to sail.

Funeral services will be private.