Veteran NYC reporter Marvin Smilon dies

Marvin Smilon of Westbury was for decades the newspaper reporter other reporters turned to for help covering some of the most celebrated federal court cases in Manhattan.

"I was a young Associated Press reporter in the press room in the early 1980s, and Marvin was the one we all looked to at the end of a long court proceeding," former Newsday reporter Paul Moses recalled Thursday.

"Marvin always knew what the lead was. He was a no-nonsense reporter who was liked and respected by other reporters," Moses said.

Smilon, who died Monday at age 81, covered the Pentagon Papers lawsuit, the Pizza Connection heroin case, the criminal prosecution of financiers Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky and other cases for the New York Post.

He was also respected by those he covered during his 34 years as a Post reporter, and Smilon went on to work as a spokesman for then-U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White of the Southern District of New York in the same courthouse in 1994.

When she left the prosecutor's office in 2002 to join a Manhattan law firm, Debevoise & Plimpton, he followed and became the firm's media relations adviser, a job he held until his death.

"We have lost one of the great human beings of the city," White said in a statement. "Marvin Smilon was a consummate professional, a skilled and dedicated reporter who cared more about people and principle than headlines and bylines."

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Born in Brooklyn, Smilon attended Erasmus Hall High School and got his bachelor's degree from NYU in 1951. He joined the Army the same year and spent most of his two-year stint as editor of the Heidelberg Area Command Post, the newspaper for U.S. forces in Europe at the time, according to his daughter, Joy Bernstein of Woodbury.

A memorial service was held Wednesday at Gutterman's in Woodbury, followed by burial at Wellwood Cemetery in Farmingdale.

In addition to Bernstein, Smilon is survived by his wife of 56 years, Natalie, daughter Debbie Wetterich of Plainview and four grandchildren.