Bob Simon

Afghan Kite, Los Angeles, 2002 © Marissa Roth

The death of Bob Simon yesterday, tragically and most ironically in a car crash in NYC on his way home from a day of work at CBS, has hit me quite hard.

I didn’t know him personally, but knew him through his brave coverage of the Vietnam War and the first Gulf War and all those episodes of 60 Minutes.

Anderson Cooper described him as a “warrior poet”. That’s a perfect description. He also struck me as being a prince of a man – elegant, erudite, compassionate and filled with grace - a timeless ‘old school’ journalist, who was a great reporter, storyteller, writer and human being.

How random fate can be, when in an instant the flame of life is blown out. The reminder again that we must live now with purpose and pleasure and as one Holocaust survivor said to me, when you say good-bye to someone you love, even if you’re just running an errand, tell them you love them.