Alexander H. Rossiter Jr. | Eastern North Carolina Now

Born: March 2, 1936, Died: September 23, 2013

    Al Rossiter, Jr., retired editor of the United Press International news service and assistant vice president at Duke University, died Monday, September 23, 2013 after a long illness. He was 77.

    Rossiter, who lived with his wife, Sylvia, near Washington, NC, rose in the ranks from reporter to top newsman during 32 years of service at UPI, and capped his career with nearly 10 years at Duke, where he directed the Duke University News Service and was an assistant vice president in the Office of Public Affairs. He retired at the end of 2001 but then worked on a part-time basis for six years at the university's Pratt School of Engineering, serving as communications director and then associate dean for public affairs.

    Rossiter, a non-smoker, learned he had lung cancer in August 2011 while serving as chair of the Plantation Marina Committee, and treasurer and director of the Pamlico Plantation Townhome Owners Association. He was treated at Duke University Medical Center. He died at Vidant Beaufort Hospital.

    Rossiter spent much of his career at UPI as a science writer and science editor. Based at Cape Canaveral, FL, from 1963 to 1973, he covered the nation's space program through 1987 when he was appointed executive editor of the agency's headquarters in Washington, DC, responsible for 850 editorial personnel around the world. In 1988, he was promoted to senior vice president as well as executive editor and in 1991 was named editor and executive vice president. He joined Duke in 1992.

    Winner of 10 journalism awards, Rossiter covered many of the most significant stories involving the U.S. space program. They included the first manned Gemini flight in 1965, the Apollo 1 launch pad fire that killed three astronauts in 1967, the Apollo 11 lunar landing in 1969, the Viking robot landings on Mars in 1976 and the first 26 space shuttle missions.

    He also led UPI's reporting on a wide range of science and medical stories including the outbreak of Legionnaire's disease in Philadelphia in 1976, the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant explosion in 1979 and the first permanent artificial heart implant in 1982 in Salt Lake City.

    As a reporter, Rossiter traveled to the South Pole, descended 220 feet in the Atlantic Ocean in a small research submarine to view the sunken USS Monitor, broke the sound barrier in an Air Force F100, covered a drought in West Africa and saw an Ariane rocket launch in French Guiana.

    Rossiter's reporting was recognized by several science and journalistic organizations, including the Aviation/Space Writers Association, the National Space Club, the American Medical Writers Association, the American Heart Association and the American Chemical Society. In 1986, he was selected one of 40 national semifinalists in NASA's Journalist-in-Space project, which was cancelled following the shuttle Challenger explosion that killed seven space fliers in 1987.

    Rossiter studied geology at Rutgers University and Emory University's Graduate School. He served on the national advisory board of the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism at the University of Maryland, and the advisory board of the Medical Journalism program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Rossiter also was a member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the National Association of Science Writers and the North Carolina Press Association. He had been recognized in Who's Who in America for more than 20 years.

    A long-time boater, Rossiter was president of the East Coast Camano Owners association for five years.

    He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Sylvia Vanlandingham Rossiter, and their two grown children, Alec Rossiter, III of Catonsville, MD, and Jill Rossiter Kerns of Bristow, VA; Jill's husband Karl, and their son, Woody; a sister, Martha Rossiter Short of Charlotte, NC; and a brother, Thomas Howell Rossiter of Lebanon, NJ.

    Rossiter was born in Elmira, NY in 1936 to Eleanor Howell Rossiter and Alexander H. Rossiter, both deceased. Rossiter grew up in Elmira, Douglaston, NY and Mahwah, NJ. He went to Rutgers in New Brunswick, NJ and Emory University in Atlanta. He married Sylvia Vanlandingham in Soperton, GA in 1960 and they lived in Atlanta; Richmond, VA; Cocoa Beach, FL; Columbia, MD; Durham, NC and Washington, NC.

    A celebration of life reception will be held on Thursday, September 26, 2013, from 4:00 to 6:00 PM, at Hillside Funeral Service & Cremations, 4500 Hwy 264 E., Washington, NC.

    In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials be made to the charity of the donor's choice.