Norman Sandler Tribute

About This Site

THIS JUST IN (ADDED MARCH 19, 2010): C-Span has moved its entire archive onto the Internet. Said archives include six appearances by Norman. I found it dreadfully difficult to watch him, especially because he was so good on television yet never was able to work full-time in the medium. On the other hand, to see him and hear him again...

I have set up this site to serve as a tribute to my friend Norman Sandler. I begin with my valedictory comments, my version of his obit, and a link to the Washington Post obit. Then I have some subheadings regarding periods in Norman's Life. Please feel free to add comments by clicking on the red word "comments" at the end of each item.

I will be informed of every comment posted, and reserve the right to delete comments I feel are inappropriate or negative. My decision is final.

You'll find a link to my photo album at the right of this text, under the heading "sandler pictures." If you'd like, I'll post yours (time and space permitting). Please send me striped-down, low-res pictures by email. (pes-at-sign-schindler-dot-org), or send me a link to your picture gallery.

--Paul Schindler

A Celebration of the life of Norman D. Sandler

I spent July 6-9, 2007 in Washington, D.C. celebrating the altogether too short life of one of my best friends, Norman Sandler. It was, as such occasions tend to be (and thank goodness I haven't had to attend all that many), bittersweet; wonderful to see old friends, some of whom I had not seen in years, but sad to see them on such an occasion.

Raeanne Hytone, his ex-wife, joined Norman's brothers Richard, Nathan and Randal in tireless organization of the event at the National Press Club at 2pm on Sunday, July 8. They turned out a lovely and tasteful program, as well as a fascinating exhibition in the 1st Amendment Lounge of pictures and souvenirs from Norman's life. I am looking at the pictures of Norm on the program right now, and I am crying. As we kept saying to each other, this is so wrong and so sad.

I'll repeat again that the best memorial for Norman is the Norman D. Sandler Scholarship fund at MIT. If you knew him, or just feel like you know him because you've read this site and gained some insight into my deep affection for the man, put some money in the pot. The scholarship will got to a student from Iowa who can't afford MIT (just like Norman in 1971), or to a political science student if there is no Iowa applicant with financial need.

Snail Mail:

Gifts in Memory of Norman D. Sandler

should be sent, payable to MIT with a notation that they are intended for the Norman Sandler Memorial Scholarship Fund, to:

Office of Memorial Gifts at MIT

Room E19-411

77 Massachusetts Avenue

Cambridge, MA 02139

There were at least 100 people at the celebration. The only important one missing of course, was Norman. Venerable UPI White House correspondent Helen Thomas (now with Hearst) was there, as were retired ABC White House shouter Sam Donaldson and still-active Bill Plante of CBS, a close personal friend of Norman and Raeanne. There were also numerous other UPI and television network people present.

The delegation from the MIT student newspaper, The Tech, was 14 strong--people who knew Norman in the years 1971-1975, when he was the living embodiment of the best things about the paper. At a brunch before the celebration, the toast, proposed by John Hanzel and shouted out by me was, "To Norman, the only person who could lure us all to Washington in July." (It was incredibly hot and muggy in Washington.) I can't list every newspaper staffer who showed up, but must make special note of Hanzel, Barb Moore and Mike McNamee, members, at one time or another (along with Norm), of the Usual Gang of Idiots, a group of college friends who have stayed close for 35 years. Like Python or the Beatles, now that we have lost a member, the group will never really be able to perform again.

The speakers at the celebration were Norman's cousin Lisa Learner Maher, Barb (who told of his MIT years), Daniel Miller (his producer in Des Moines), Sheila Tate (who gave him his first post-UPI job), Rusty Brashear (who brought him to Motorola) and his brothers Randal and Richard. I could have said so much… but I was asked to help keep the service moving by restricting myself to the role of an observer, which I did.

Barb told most of my best Norman stories anyway, including one I had forgotten. Just a few days before Barb, Norm, John Hanzel and myself left for a trip to Jamaica, I came home from UPI to find my suitcase torn apart. Norman had removed all the clothing items he refused to be seen with. He said, "Let's go," and took me over to Saks Fifth Avenue on Commonwealth Avenue for new shirts, pants and a new swimsuit (that last may have come from Lord and Taylor).

That was Norm. My God, he will be missed.

Norman Sandler, RIP

(July 1, 2007) Norman Sandler was my roommate at MIT; he was class of 1975, I was class of 1974. He was executive editor of the MIT Newspaper, The Tech when I was editor-in-chief, during Volume 93. Norm lived in McGregor House at MIT; I lived in Student House. When I graduated, I moved into a two-bedroom apartment in Winthrop, Mass., near the airport. Dave Tenenbaum took the small bedroom, Sandler and I split the large bedroom. Two stories I remember: whenever we played tennis, if a jet plane from nearby Logan Airport passed over, Norm would look up and say, "I wish I were on that plane." During the year we were roomies, the classic Patrick McGoohan program The Prisoner was showed on Sunday nights. We would watch it together; every Sunday night as I turned off the TV, for 13 weeks, he would look at me and say, "I don't get it."

During that year in Winthrop, Norman was working on his master's thesis in political science, "28 years of looking the other way: Congressional oversight of the Central Intelligence Agency, 1947-1975." It was published by the Center for International Studies at MIT. He was in Washington working on his thesis. I had been laid off by the Associated Press a few months earlier. James Wieck, then Boston Comcenter manager at United Press International (UPI), called because a radio wire writer was out sick. Norm frequently filled in at the bureau. "I can do it," I said (even though I had only filed the radio wire twice in four months at AP--I spent the subway ride into Boston reading the UPI radio stylebook). Thus began the most exciting 18 months of my journalism career.

Sandler was the best man at my wedding, and although we drifted apart in latter years, I always considered him one of my best friends.

Norman was born and raised in Des Moines, where he started his UPI career. He also worked in the Boston bureau while he was MIT. He did a lot of radio work in his day and appeared frequently on political and news shows in Des Moines.

The pinnacle of any UPI career was assignment to either headquarters in New York City or the Washington Bureau, which did more original reporting than all the other bureaus combined. Norman began, as most newcomers did, on the overnight shift (Midnight to 8 am, roughly). He quickly rose to the number two position in the White House bureau, just behind the venerable Helen Thomas. Both President Reagan and President George H.W. Bush knew Norman; at the time, he was, along with the Associated Press correspondents, one of the most important reporters in the White House, guaranteed a question at every news conference and flying frequently on Air Force One.

After Clinton was elected, Sandler spent some time at Powell and Tate, a lobbying firm, before joining Motorola, which he left earlier this year. His long time marriage to Raeanne Hytone ended in divorce earlier this year. They had no children.

UPI owed him thousands of dollars in expenses at the time of the bankruptcy--or one of the bankruptcies. I don't know if he ever collected.

He will be sorely missed. He was the smartest, best-looking guy I knew. He was 53, and would have been 54 in September.

We don't yet know the cause of death; he was found dead in his apartment in Washington, D.C. and had apparently been dead for several days.

Norman Sandler, journalist, dies at 53

[My friend Norman Sandler finally got a Washington Post paper obit, which differs from mine mainly in that it contains precise dates for his jobs and his term as president of the White House Correspondents. There was also a Norman Sandler Obituary in the Fairfield (Iowa) Ledger]. I added the picture.

Award-winning journalist Norman D. Sandler, a former White House correspondent for United Press International (UPI), was found dead in his Washington, D.C. apartment on June 4, 2007. He was 53.

The cause of death has not been determined.

Sandler covered the Reagan and George H.W. Bush presidencies for UPI, and later served as a corporate communications official. At the White House, Sandler served with venerable UPI correspondent Helen Thomas, frequently traveling with the president on Air Force One. Sandler served as president of the White House Correspondents Association, and received the Association's 1990 and 1991 Merriman Smith Memorial Award for excellence in presidential news coverage under deadline pressure.

After he left UPI, he served with the Washington communications and public affairs firm of Powell Tate, founded by Jody Powell (press secretary to President Jimmy Carter) and Sheila Tate (press secretary to former first lady Nancy Reagan). Sandler worked for more than a decade as a public affairs and communications official for Motorola Inc., of Schaumburg, Ill. Sandler dealt most often with questions of the safety of cellular telephones; until shortly before his death, he was director of Strategic Global Issues Management for the company.

Sandler grew up in Des Moines and Fairfield, Iowa, before moving on to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he was selected Outstanding Freshman in 1972. While at MIT, Sandler served four years on the student newspaper, The Tech, rising to the position of executive editor.

He graduated from MIT in 1975 with both a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in political science. His master's thesis, 28 years of looking the other way: Congressional Oversight of the Central Intelligence Agency, 1947-1975, was published; copies were purchased by the CIA for its archives. Sandler was closely associated with the late Edwin Diamond, a senior lecturer in the MIT political science department. He was a student co-founder of Diamond's News Study Group, and co-authored Telecommunications in Crisis: The First Amendment, Technology, and Deregulation.

Sandler worked briefly at the Boston bureau of UPI, doing weekend and fill-in work while attending MIT, then returned to Iowa and served for several years in the Des Moines bureau, frequently covering politics and appearing on local radio and television public affairs programs. UPI transferred him to its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he started out on the midnight-8 a.m. shift, frequently filing stories for UPI Audio. He quickly rose to a position in the White House bureau.

Sandler was survived by his mother Jacquelyn of Los Angeles; three brothers, Richard, of Chicago, Nathan, of Los Angeles, and Randal, of Greenwich, Conn.; and by his former wife, Raeanne Hytone, of Washington, D.C.

[Members of the UPI downhold wire and Sandler's relatives contributed to this story]

Award-winning journalist Norman D. Sandler, a former White House correspondent for United Press International (UPI), was found dead in his Washington, D.C. apartment on June 4, 2007. He was 53.

The cause of death has not been determined.

Sandler covered the Reagan and George H.W. Bush presidencies for UPI, and later served as a corporate communications official. At the White House, Sandler served with venerable UPI correspondent Helen Thomas, frequently traveling with the president on Air Force One. Sandler served as president of the White House Correspondents Association, and received the Association's 1990 and 1991 Merriman Smith Memorial Award for excellence in presidential news coverage under deadline pressure.

After he left UPI, he served with the Washington communications and public affairs firm of Powell Tate, founded by Jody Powell (press secretary to President Jimmy Carter) and Sheila Tate (press secretary to former first lady Nancy Reagan). Sandler worked for more than a decade as a public affairs and communications official for Motorola Inc., of Schaumburg, Ill. Sandler dealt most often with questions of the safety of cellular telephones; until shortly before his death, he was director of Strategic Global Issues Management for the company.

Sandler grew up in Des Moines and Fairfield, Iowa, before moving on to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he was selected Outstanding Freshman in 1972. While at MIT, Sandler served four years on the student newspaper, The Tech, rising to the position of executive editor.

He graduated from MIT in 1975 with both a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in political science. His master's thesis, 28 years of looking the other way: Congressional Oversight of the Central Intelligence Agency, 1947-1975, was published; copies were purchased by the CIA for its archives. Sandler was closely associated with the late Edwin Diamond, a senior lecturer in the MIT political science department. He was a student co-founder of Diamond's News Study Group, and co-authored Telecommunications in Crisis: The First Amendment, Technology, and Deregulation.

Sandler worked briefly at the Boston bureau of UPI, doing weekend and fill-in work while attending MIT, then returned to Iowa and served for several years in the Des Moines bureau, frequently covering politics and appearing on local radio and television public affairs programs. UPI transferred him to its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he started out on the midnight-8 a.m. shift, frequently filing stories for UPI Audio. He quickly rose to a position in the White House bureau.

Sandler was survived by his mother Jacquelyn of Los Angeles; three brothers, Richard, of Chicago, Nathan, of Los Angeles, and Randal, of Greenwich, Conn.; and by his former wife, Raeanne Hytone, of Washington, D.C.

[Members of the UPI downhold wire and Sandler's relatives contributed to this story]

Norman Sandler--Beyond Characterization

If you want to leave comments about Norman that don't fit in any category, leave them here.

Norman Sandler at Motorola and Powell Tate

If you knew Norman during the corporate segment of his career, talk about it here.

Norman Sandler at UPI

Norman spent nearly two decades at the late, great, United Press International, finishing up his stint as an award-winning White House correspondent, and president of the White House Correspondents Association. Comment on this part of his life here.

02/06/2009

I just posted this story about Norm at my blog, and I thought I would also share it here.

At the time, Norman Sandler was working the late shift at UPI on occasion (I was working the late shift at AP). Often, the subway was shut down by the time we got out of the office. So, when possible, we shared a cab home to Winthrop. I called one night to make arrangements, and he said to me, "I may be a little late, I have to clear up this six-car fatal in Taunton." "Me too," I said, and hung up. I called every police agency within 20 miles of Taunton, and couldn't find any six-car fatal. Despondent, I met an hysterically laughing Norman an hour later in a cab downstairs. "How was the six-car fatal," he asked. Ha Ha. He had made the whole thing up.

Norman Sandler at MIT

Norman Sandler '75 cut a wide swath at MIT in the political science department and the student newspaper The Tech as well as in MIT's first television news show, MITV. Comments on this period should go here!

Norman Sandler Youth

Did you know Norman in Iowa? Eat his Shakey's Pizza? Drink his A&W Root Beer? Attend a movie at his family's movie theater (where Norm "faced" the currency by having all the bills face the same way). Leave your comments here!