Paul Colford, former Newsday journalist with eclectic take on the world, dies at 71

Paul Colford loved to give books as a host gift. He was always on hand to recommend a literary quote, was fluent in Italian and knew every inch of New York City despite never having lived there, his family said. Above all, the longtime Newsday writer knew that everyone had a story to tell.

"He hated small talk and knew that people at their core were really interesting and everyone had something to say. As a reporter by nature, he was always trying to learn new things and ask questions," said Colford's daughter, Catherine Colford, of Brooklyn. "He was an extremely emotionally intelligent person, which is what made him a great dad and husband, but also a great reporter."

The former Huntington resident died Aug. 26, after heart complications affected by his 15-year battle with Parkinson’s disease. Paul Colford was 71.

Path to Newsday

Colford was born on Sept. 24, 1953, in Jersey City, New Jersey. A classics major of ancient languages and texts, he graduated from St. Peter's University in Jersey City in 1975, after spending two years at the University of Turin in Italy, from 1973 to 1975. That same year, he landed his first job in the news business as news director at WADB in Belmar, New Jersey. Colford then spent a few years at The Courier News, also in New Jersey, until 1980, when he was hired by New York Newsday as a media columnist and general assignment reporter.

"Paul and I sat next to one another during most of the three years I worked at Newsday covering television. We were polar opposites in style," said Kevin Goldman, of Litchfield, Connecticut, a friend of Colford's and a former Newsday television and radio reporter. "I was bombastic on the phone with sources while he was calm, levelheaded and reasonable. Yet we forged a close friendship." 

Stephen Williams, a former music writer for New York Newsday who worked alongside Colford, remembered his friend as "very humble" and someone who "loved to talk about his colleagues and friends and loved sharing stories."

Relentless reporter, loyal friend

"He was a relentless, dogged reporter. When he got hold of a story, he made sure he did all of the research and was as thorough a reporter as one could be. I think he stayed that way right to the end," said Williams, of Boston. "We shared a lot of the silliness that comes out of a newspaper office, but whenever I needed a shoulder to cry on or encouragement, he was always there. Whenever we closed a conversation, we would say, 'I love you, man.' I'll miss him."

Colford met his first wife, Jane, who died in 2017, through friends at a bar in Jersey City. The couple married in June 1982 and in addition to Catherine, had a son, Liam.

Catherine Colford described her father as someone who was "smart, warm, funny, strong, curious, interesting and interested."

"It was cool to have a dad who was a newspaperman," Colford said. "He loved getting to the bottom of breaking news and liked rushing to press conferences or crime scenes. I bragged about him all the time." 

Of his father, Liam Colford said: "I was in awe of him. ... He had such a really strong sense of right and wrong. He was hyper aware of the human condition and was able to empathize with anybody about anything, and that guided his career and understanding as a parent." 

Paul Colford had dated Anne LaBate in the 1970s. The two reconnected in 2018 and married in February 2022. LaBate said she admired her late husband's "broad outlook on the world" and how he "brought people together."

Eclectic tastes

"Paul was the kind of person who could hear from everyone and be open to everything, yet very strongly knew where he stood on politics and community. There wasn't a topic that wouldn't interest him," said LaBate, of Trenton, New Jersey. "He loved just being around people who wanted to exchange ideas and thoughts, and the warmth that comes with that. He made really deep friendships in many corners of his life and maintained those friendships. He was loved."

LaBate and Colford enjoyed attending live theater together, eating at diners and listening to music.

"He loved being in a vinyl record store," LaBate said. "Paul was a huge music fan, and he had eclectic taste. I was more jazz, but he was all over the place: blues to jazz to a huge Bob Dylan collection to Irish music."

After writing unauthorized biographies on Howard Stern  and Rush Limbaugh, Colford left Newsday in 2000 for the New York Daily News. He then became the vice president of media relations at The Associated Press from 2007 to 2016, ultimately retiring from that role.

"Paul was an absolutely indefatigable reporter who never seemed to stop working a story or source or idea — and he was full of ideas. I admired him a great deal — and I wasn’t the only one at Newsday who did," said Verne Gay, Newsday's longtime TV writer and critic, and also a friend and former colleague of Colford's. "I really believe he set the standard for his biographies of Rush Limbaugh and (in particular) Howard Stern. His was a deeply reported account of a major cultural figure — in my opinion, the best one ever written on Stern."

In addition to his wife and children, Colford is survived by his granddaughter and seven siblings. A funeral Mass is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at Saint Rose Roman Catholic Church in Belmar, New Jersey. Interment will follow at Saint Gertrude Cemetery in Colonia, New Jersey. Donations can be made  to the Committee to Protect Journalists or the Parkinson’s Foundation.