Obituaries

Michael Shuster, who covered the world for NPR for three decades, died at 76

Mike Shuster, an award-winning foreign and senior diplomatic correspondent for National Public Radio, passed away on November 6, 2023 from complications of Parkinsons. He was 76. His memorial is slated for Sunday, June 30, 2024 at 1 pm in the Chapel of the Hillside Memorial Park and Cemetery in Los Angeles. Friends, colleagues and family are invited to join in remembering Shuster at the Memorial Service, to be followed by an inurnment ceremony and a reception on the Chapel Patio.

Shuster had a long career, beginning in the early 1970s, covering the globe, beginning in West Africa where he spent five months covering the Angolan civil war and traveled throughout the region, working then for Liberation News Service.

Shuster joined NPR in 1980 and over more than three decades as a reporter and an editor his work spanned the world and made him an eyewitness to some of the most momentous events in modern history. He filed more than 3,000 stories for NPR where he covered both Gulf wars, the conflict in Israel and Palestine, the Bosnian civil war and the war in Kosovo, and the collapse of the Soviet Union. As a senior diplomatic correspondent, Shuster covered issues of nuclear non-proliferation and weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, the Pacific Rim and notably traveled frequently to Iran – at least seven times after 2004 – where he was one of the few American correspondents to spend extended time.

After working in New York for NPR as a reporter and editor, Shuster was sent to London in 1989. While at the London Bureau, Shuster covered the unification of Germany, from the announcement of the opening of the Berlin Wall to the establishment of a single currency for that country, which he later described as “the most extraordinary story in my lifetime.” He traveled to Germany monthly during this time to trace the revolution there, from euphoria over the freedom to travel, to the decline of the Communist Party, to the newly independent country’s first free elections.

During his time in London, Shuster also covered the first Gulf War. Shuster had the opportunity cover another historic moment, when he moved to Moscow in 1991 as the NPR bureau chief. He covered the end of Soviet communism, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the rise of the newly independent states. He traveled from the far reaches of Russia to civil war-ravaged Tajikistan.

As a diplomatic correspondent, Shuster shaped NPR’s coverage of the Middle East, including coverage of the second Gulf War and the war in Iraq. He reported frequently from Israel, covering the 2006 war with Hezbollah, the pullout from Gaza in 2005 and the second intifadah that erupted in 2000. He traveled frequently to Iran, beginning in 2004, including on the scene reporting of the Iranian election of 2009 and the massive protests that followed. His 2007 week-long series, “The Partisans of Ali,” explored the history of the Shi’ite faith and politics, providing a rare, comprehensive look at the complexities of the Islamic religion and its impact on the Western world.

Shuster won numerous awards for his reporting. He was part of the NPR News team to be recognized with a Peabody Award for coverage of September 11th and its aftermath. He was also part of the NPR News teams to receive Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards for coverage of the Iraq War (2007 and 2004); September 11th and the war in Afghanistan (2003); and the Gulf War (1992). In 2003, Shuster was honored for his series “The Middle East: A Century of Conflict” with an Overseas Press Club Lowell Thomas Award and First in Documentary Reporting from the National Headliner Awards. He also received an honorable mention from the Overseas Press Club in 1999, and the SAJA Journalism Award in 1998.

Following his retirement from NPR in 2013, Shuster became a free-lance producer and writer, creating The Great War Project, a website, blog and podcast that recounted the history of WWI and its impact on our world, a century after its outbreak. He served on the President’s WWI Centennial Commission. He worked on several television series projects and was a senior fellow at UCLA’s Burkle Center for International Relations.

Shuster is survived by his longtime partner, Stephanie Boyd, and by his brother Lee Shuster and nephew Corey Shuster and niece Amanda Shuster. He was born in Philadelphia on July 7, 1947, the son of Morris Merle Shuster and Beatrice Ritta Gerber. He was proceeded in death by his brother Terry.

Shuster attended Williams College of Massachusetts. Those wishing to make memorial donations are encouraged to give to the Michael J. Fox Foundation or your local public radio station or Williams College of Massachusetts.

This obituary was written by Daniel C. Sneider, a lecturer of East Asian studies at Stanford University, former foreign correspondent and friend of Mike Shuster’s. Sneider was the Moscow Bureau Chief for the Christian Science Monitor in the 1990s when both were based in Moscow, covering the conflicts of the region and the collapse of the former Soviet Union.