American Writer & Novelist, Pete Hamill Has Passed Away

Pete Hamill  Death – Dead: American Writer & Novelist, Pete Hamill Has Passed Away

One of the most respected American journalist, novelist, essayist, editor and educator, Pete Hamill has passed away. Pete Hamill was reported to have died in the early hours of today August 5 2020. Pete Hamill died at the age of 85.

Pete Hamill death was first shared by Longtime writer for The New York Times, Dan Barry in a series of tweets.

The tweets reads below..
The truly great Pete Hamill died this morning. Newspaperman, novelist, mentor to so many, citizen of the world. I once wrote that if the pavement of New York City could talk, it would sound like Pete Hamill. Now that city weeps.

The truly great Pete Hamill died this morning. Newspaperman, novelist, mentor to so many, citizen of the world. I once wrote that if the pavement of New York City could talk, it would sound like Pete Hamill. Now that city weeps.

— Dan Barry (@DanBarryNYT) August 5, 2020

Pete Hamill told New York’s story for 60 years. His voice rang loudest & truest when the city was in trouble in the 1970s, like the patriots in Casablanca drowning out the Nazis with La Marseillaise. The goodness of his generous heart never ran low.

Tributes Floods Twitter

RIP Pete Hamill, a walking inspiration to so many of us. He was the journalist we all wanted to be, with the life we all wanted to live. The best advice he ever gave me: “ALWAYS check the clips.” So basic yet somehow so often forgotten. His legacy and work live on.

— jimrutenberg (@jimrutenberg) August 5, 2020

So sad to hear about the death of Pete Hamill. My mom went to his reading for A Drinking Life at @BookRevueLI in ’94, stood on line, got her book signed and of course told him about her son trying to make it as a writer. A few weeks later, I got a handwritten letter from Pete …

— Mike Malone (@BCMikeMalone) August 5, 2020

RIP Pete Hamill, an elegant writer and wonderful guy I had the privilege of sitting next to in the press box for all 5 games of the 2000 Subway Series. For that reason alone I wish it had gone 7

— wallace matthews (@OysterBayBomber) August 5, 2020

RIP, Pete Hamill, my writing hero. He was a great newspaper man, a terrific storyteller in his news stories, his novels and in life, and a New Yorker through & through. So glad I got to thank Pete & tell him all he’s meant to me after a talk with @DaReal_JMcBride. #PeteHamill pic.twitter.com/31SfdbEUrI

— John Roche (@johnrochewrite) August 5, 2020

Few Things You Need To Know About Pete Hill

The eldest of seven children of Catholic immigrants from Belfast, Northern Ireland, Pete Hamill was born in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn. His father, Billy Hamill, lost a leg as the result of an injury in a semi-pro soccer game in Brooklyn.

Hamill’s mother, Anne Devlin, a high school graduate in Belfast, arrived in New York on the day the stock market crashed in 1929. Billy Hamill met Anne Devlin in 1933 and they married the following year.

Billy Hamill had jobs as a grocery clerk, in a war plant, and later in a factory producing lighting fixtures. Anne Hamill was employed in Wanamaker’s department store, and also worked as a domestic, a nurses’ aide, and a cashier in the RKO movie chain. Hamill’s brother Denis also became a columnist for the Daily News.

Hamill attended Holy Name of Jesus grammar school and delivered the Brooklyn Daily Eagle when he was 11.

In 1949, Hamill attended the prestigious Regis High School in Manhattan, but left school when he was 15 to work as an apprentice sheet metal worker in the Brooklyn Navy Yard; 59 years later, in June 2010, Regis awarded him an honorary diploma.[6] Inspired especially by the work of Milton Caniff, he was set on becoming a comic book artist.

Hamill attended night classes at the School of Visual Arts (then called the Cartoonists and Illustrators School), with the goal of becoming a painter.

He also took courses at Pratt Institute, which awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1980.

In the fall of 1952, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. After his discharge, in 1956-57, he was a student at Mexico City College on the G.I. Bill. Hamill has also lived in Spain, Ireland, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Rome, Los Angeles, and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

A friend of Robert F. Kennedy, Hamill helped persuade the senator to run for the United States presidency, then worked for the campaign and covered it as a journalist. He was one of four men who disarmed Sirhan Sirhan of his gun in the aftermath of the Robert F. Kennedy assassination.