Ed Koch

I knew Ed Koch too. Like so many New Yorkers and broadcast colleagues I interacted with Mr. Koch in a number of ways. I first met him in 1969 at the Rayburn office building in Washington, DC. I was a newly arrived reporter working for the then Metromedia Television organization. I was their White House and Capitol Hill correspondent covering the going's on and events in the nation's capitol.

One day I was walking in the Rayburn halls looking for some congressman's office. So was Ed Koch. He was a newly elected congressman from the silk stocking 17th  Congressional district in New York. We met in the hallway and talked and laughed about the Rayburn building labyrinth. Since my duties included the Congressional delegation from New York we exchanged information and said, "see you around."

For the next 40-years we saw each other around at news stories, press conferences, and social events. He as a three term mayor of New York and me as a local reporter in New York City.

The last time I interviewed Ed Koch was in 2004 at the GOP convention in New York. He, a democrat, was commenting on the republicans coming to New York. Off camera I asked him his age. He said with glee. "I'm going to be 80, isn't that great?" I reminded him of our first meeting. He didn't remember, but acknowledged our mutual connection to the city and he did remember handing me several Emmy awards through the years and an interview I did with him in Italy.

He was there for the consistory that awarded archbishop O'Connor his red hat. On a live satellite interview I said to him in Italian, "Stai facendo bene." He asked what it meant and I said, you're doing fine. He laughed and said,  "I always like to know how I'm doing."

Ed Koch was not just a Congressman or a Mayor or a politician. He was, for so many years, the spirit of New York City. He was its energy, its enthusiasm, its savior, its symbol to the outside world. He was direct, vocal, upfront and real.

If he asked his favorite question at the Pearly Gates, I'll bet the answer was, "you did fine Ed."