Leonard H. Levitt ’63
Leonard H. Levitt ’63 died May 18 at home in Stamford, Connecticut, of lung cancer. Lenny was born in Cedarhurst, New York, and attended Woodmere Academy, where he was president of student government. At Dartmouth he majored in history and was a brother of Tau Epsilon Phi. He married Susan, the sister of friend and classmate Pete Gina ’60. Lenny taught English for two years in the Peace Corps in Tanzania, graduated from the Columbia School of Journalism, and worked for the Associated Press, The Detroit News, Time, Newsday, and The New York Post before embarking on an effort that brought him great acclaim. In 1979 Lenny was awarded a Rockefeller grant to find the students he had taught in Tanzania. This led to an article in The New York Times Magazine in 1982 and an essay in his book, Going Up Country. He began his Newsday column, “One Police Plaza,” in 1985. He was probably best known as a N.Y.C. police reporter who pulled no punches. John Miller, former police spokesman, told the Times: “Whatever he covered, he immediately alienated the mainstream sources, the leadership, and thus ingratiated himself with the disenfranchised and the unhappy. Lenny was a good read unless he was writing about you.” Lenny spurred an investigation (later of subject of his book) of the 1975 killing of Martha Moxley, which led to a murder charge against Michael Skakel, a cousin of the Kennedys. He is survived by his wife, Susan, two children, and a grandchild.
