Roger Wood
HERE FOR YOU: News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch comforts Roger Wood’s widow, Pat Miller, at yesterday’s Midtown memorial. (
)
Family, friends and colleagues paid tribute yesterday to late New York Post editor Roger Wood, who steered the tabloid through one of the city’s most turbulent decades.
Wood, 87, who died in November, ushered in a new era of eye-popping headlines that were talked about as much as the news itself.
The Englishman, who took over shortly after Rupert Murdoch bought the paper in 1977, signed off on such gems as “11 Dead and the Band Played On,” “Granny Executed in Her Pink Pajamas” and “Headless Body in Topless Bar.”
“Roger was a man who combined the English of the King James Bible with the sensibilities of a newspaper editor out of ‘The Front Page,’ ” Murdoch said at the Midtown memorial service.
“Though Roger was an Oxford man, he didn’t learn about life at a university,” Murdoch said. “He learned it from living it.”
The News Corp. chairman and CEO said his friend was “a big-city newspaper editor who never lost his sense of the ongoing pageant of humanity that is New York City.”
Colleagues credited Wood with doubling the newspaper’s circulation during his nine-year watch, and patted the editor on the back for helping elect Ed Koch mayor in 1977. Koch had even thanked Wood in his victory speech.
Wood also made an indelible mark on the gossip world when he launched Page Six.
Friends and family — including Pat Miller, his companion and wife of more than 40 years — filled Fifth Avenue’s St. Thomas Church.
Although Wood was not a particularly religious man, he loved visiting the edifice during the Christmas season to gaze at the French arches and listen to Handel’s “Messiah.”
The only thing missing from the ceremony was the clatter of typewriters and the busy banter of breaking news.
The assembled journalists, with roots in every corner of the globe, did what they do best — they told stories, even if the best ones weren’t suited for an Episcopal church.
Former News Corp. executive Les Hinton told a tale involving Wood’s identical-twin brother, Victor, who worked in the finance industry.
When Roger, who wasn’t good at negotiating, was fired from the London Daily Express, he sent his brother in his place — unbeknownst to company executives — to hammer out a severance deal, Hinton said.
The charming editor, who called men “Dear Boy” and women “Lovely One,” wasn’t shy about looking over a writer’s shoulder and making suggestions.
“He always seemed permanently unperturbed,” Hinton said.“It was always a bad mistake to think Roger wasn’t paying attention.”
Roger Wood was born on Oct. 4, 1925, in Antwerp, Belgium. He spoke no English until his family moved to Britain seven years later. Wood served in the Royal Air Force in World War II and graduated from Oxford.
Colleagues joked about Wood’s long, expensive lunches, a habit he maintained after he left The Post.
“There was no one better to go to a restaurant with,” said Wood’s son, Nicholas. “And no one better to go through a wine list with.”
Nicholas said one of his father’s favorite quips was, “If you need me, I’ll call you.”
Wood took pride in the forthcoming arrival of twin granddaughters, who were born days after his death.
“He loved his profession,” Nicholas said. “But it was his family that was most important to him. He adored all of his family, and they adored him back.”