Judith Rapoport dies at 92. Her best-selling book introduced readers to OCD. While working at the NIH, she wrote “The Boy Who Couldn’t Stop Washing,” a groundbreaking study of OCD. She also researched childhood schizophrenia and ADHD.

Working out of the NIH, Judith Rapoport helped introduce the public to OCD, writing the 1989 bestseller “The Boy Who Couldn’t Stop Washing.”

She “essentially brought that disorder to light in the United States and around the world.”

My obit for the Post: www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...

Sculptor Thaddeus Mosley, who found international fame in his 90s, is dead To focus on sculpting, he worked nights at a Pittsburgh post office. At 92, his art career finally took off.

Wrote about Thaddeus Mosley, the self-taught sculptor who worked nights at a post office, carving wood by day, before finding international fame at 92.

“Mr. Mosley holds up an example that’s so critical for artists of all generations — to keep going.”

www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...

Tomorrow, the Washington Post Tech Guild enters effects and decisional bargaining over the company’s illegal attempted layoffs of 76 of our colleagues. Our goal is to secure the best possible deal for our members: both those who want to stay and those who choose to leave.

Paula Doress-Worters, who helped break the silence on postpartum depression, dies at 87 She co-wrote “Our Bodies, Ourselves,” a 1970s touchstone conceived by and for women. The book offered information about abortion, pregnancy and postpartum life.

For @washingtonpost.com, I wrote about the death of Paula Doress-Worters, who co-wrote the landmark women's health book "Our Bodies, Ourselves."

She drew on her own experience with postpartum depression to bring the subject out of the shadows: www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...

Drusilla Beyfus obituary Stylish newspaper and magazine journalist who enjoyed great success with her book Modern Manners, a guide to etiquette

Hired by the Daily Express at 21, in 1948, she was "game for anything, such as charming her way on to an RAF plane airlifting coal to the Soviet-blockaded city of Berlin. She landed smudged but triumphant."

Lovely read from Veronica Horwell in the Guardian: www.theguardian.com/media/2026/m...

The last Marine to leave Vietnam has died. Juan Valdez was 88. As North Vietnamese troops closed in, he was the last Marine to board the last helicopter out of Saigon. “He was a model leader,” said one who served with him.

Some echoes from an earlier war: The last Marine to leave Vietnam, Juan Valdez, died this month at 88. He was on the last helicopter to take off from the U.S. Embassy in Saigon.

“He was a model leader,” said one Marine who served with him.

www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...

Colman McCarthy, who preached peace as a Post columnist and teacher, dies at 87 After training as a monk, he left the monastery to go into journalism, writing a syndicated Post column that made him a prominent voice in the peace movement.

Colman McCarthy, the longtime peace activist and Washington Post columnist, has died at 87.

“He wrote about principles — peace and nonviolence — and he lived by those principles,” said Don Graham, the paper's former publisher. “He made The Post better.”

www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...

NFL Pro Bowler Tre’ Johnson, dead at 54, found a new calling as a teacher He was a bruising offensive lineman, playing in Washington for eight seasons, before becoming a teacher and coach at a Maryland private school.

For @washingtonpost.com, I spoke to former students and colleagues of Tre' Johnson, who died last week at 54. The onetime NFL standout had reinvented himself as a high school history teacher.

“He got me to see more in myself than I knew was there.”

www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...

The (very French) lede of his Le Monde obit:

"When we one day seek to understand what Western civilization was like in the second half of the 20th c, we'll undoubtedly turn to...Wiseman...There is hardly a parallel to [his] monumental project, except perhaps Honoré de Balzac's La Comédie humaine."

Frederick Wiseman, a master of immersive documentaries, dies at 96 His films explored American institutions, from a psychiatric hospital to a public housing project, and brought him international acclaim.

RIP Frederick Wiseman. Another, very different cinema giant now lost. He was making movies into his 90s, crafting “a natural history of the way we live” while documenting life at a housing project, psychiatric institution and Michelin-starred restaurant.

www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...

LaMonte McLemore spread joy through the 5th Dimension and Jet magazine The singer and photographer was a founding member of the vocal group, known for No. 1 hits like “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In.” He died last week at 90.

Wrote about LaMonte McLemore, gone at 90, who spread a message of joy as a singer in the 5th Dimension and photographer for Jet magazine.

"He was a sure shot. And I knew that if LaMonte was shooting it, it was going to be perfect."

www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...

If you're in D.C. a week from tomorrow, there's an event at Politics & Prose honoring the history of Book World. I think the tone will likely be less funerary than you might imagine. I know my comments will be. politics-prose.com/tribute-book...

Will Lewis’s exit is long overdue. His legacy will be the attempted destruction of a great American journalism institution. But it's not too late to save The Post. Jeff Bezos must immediately rescind these layoffs or sell the paper to someone willing to invest in its future.

Washington Post C.E.O. Will Lewis Steps Down After Stormy Tenure

“I’m glad Will Lewis has been fired. I wish it had happened before he fired all my friends.”
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/t...

Bob Croft, free diver who ventured deeper than anyone before him, dies at 91 The barrel-chested diver set three world records and served as an underwater guinea pig for Navy scientists.

My obit for Bob Croft, a free diving legend who set three world records while plunging into the Gulf Stream.

“If you’re doing something that could possibly kill you and you don’t have at least a small amount of apprehension, you’re either a liar or a fool.”

www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...

I’ve Been Laid Off. I’m Not Done. After 20 years at The Washington Post, I’m suddenly on my own — and still writing about books.

After 20 years, I've been laid off at The Washington Post.
substack.com/home/post/p-...

Devastated to lose you as a colleague - you deserve so much better than this - but very glad your rants/raves/broadsides will be landing in my inbox soon 🙏

Chris Richards is of the greatest Post writers of all time, & the best music critic in the country.

You want Chris’s words in your life, & I am going to keep them in mine.

I have never before recommended a Substack. His brand new one has my immense endorsement: thefutureisourstomake.substack.com

I'm so sorry, Jon. You deserve better.

Donate to Washington Post 2026 layoff fund, organized by Rachel Siegel On Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, The Washington Post laid off hundreds of journalists. We ar… Rachel Siegel needs your support for Washington Post 2026 layoff fund

A paper is always defined more by its staff than its management. The hundreds of journalists who lost their jobs today covered every subject imaginable, at times risking their safety and well-being to get out the news. Please consider donating: www.gofundme.com/f/standing-t...

I'm so sorry, JM. It was a privilege to have you as a deskmate. More great work to come, I'm sure 🙏

I expected the cuts would be bad but I'm honestly stunned and sickened seeing how many great journalists the Washington Post just lost. People who nailed huge investigations, documented war zones, exposed horrific crimes, dropped all at once for failures they did not cause.

You could build a newsroom from scratch with all the brilliant journalists who were just laid off at the Post. Devastated for all my friends and colleagues who lost their jobs today

Myra MacPherson, trailblazing Washington Post journalist, dies at 91 The longtime Style section reporter defied gender stereotypes, covering current affairs and writing books about the Vietnam War and power-couple marriages.

When Myra MacPherson applied for her first journalism job in 1956, an editor informed her he had no openings on the women’s page.

“I said I wasn’t considering the women’s department, and he looked at me as if I had said I just shot my mother.”

RIP 👑 www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...

It takes all of us to make The Washington Post. Every section works together to create this authoritative, entertaining, worldwide news report.

So, Jeff Bezos, #SaveThePost.

For nearly a century, the @washingtonpost’s foreign correspondents have been on the ground for the world’s most pressing stories. Now, our desk is facing potential steep cuts. Washington needs us. The world needs us. If you read us and need us, please watch this video and share.

Raised in the segregated South, Gladys West was a hidden figure behind GPS Without the mathematical model that she helped refine, “the extraordinary positioning, navigation, and timing accuracy of GPS would be impossible to achieve.”

Raised in Jim Crow-era Virginia, educated in a leaky-roofed one-room schoolhouse, Gladys West, 95, became a hidden figure behind the development of GPS. New from me in @washingtonpost.com:

www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...

Federal agent secured gun from Minn. man before fatal shooting, videos show A Washington Post analysis of videos sheds light on the encounter that left 37-year-old Alex Pretti dead.

My @washingtonpost.com colleagues worked round the clock this weekend to expose the truth of what's happening in Minneapolis and bring urgent weather news to millions facing dangerous cold and snow.

If you value this work, tell Jeff Bezos to #SaveThePost
www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

As @washingtonpost.com international & local correspondents, we have risked our lives, side by side, because we believe reporting from the ground serves the public good. To choke that engine of brave, committed colleagues would be devastating. If you value our work, tell Jeff Bezos to #SaveThePost.

A world without a strong Washington Post is a dark, dark world — more confusing, less informed. While my colleagues and I ask Jeff Bezos to reconsider layoffs and #SaveThePost, please consider subscribing if you don’t already.

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