TERRY ANDERSON

(AP Photo/File) (Uncredited)NEW YORK — (AP) — Larry Heinzerling, a 41-year Associated Press news executive and bureau chief who played a key role in winning freedom for hostage Terry Anderson from his Hezbollah abductors in Lebanon, has died after a short illness. He was deputized by then-AP President and Chief Executive Officer Lou Boccardi to seek contacts with governments and international intermediaries to obtain the release of Anderson, the AP bureau chief in Beirut who had been kidnapped by the extremist group in 1985. At AP headquarters in New York, Heinzerling was director of AP World Services and later deputy international editor. Heinzerling graduated from Ohio Wesleyan College before joining the AP in Columbus in 1967, simultaneously acquiring a master's degree in international journalism at Ohio State. In 1978, Heinzerling was named bureau chief in Frankfurt, West Germany, overseeing AP's newsgathering from central Europe and directing the large AP German service, then the second-largest news agency in Germany.

Former AP executive and foreign correspondent Larry Heinzerling has died after a short illness.

The former Washington bureau chief for The Associated Press and The Hearst Newspapers who tirelessly advocated for the release of AP journalist Terry Anderson from kidnappers in Lebanon, died Saturday, March 20, 2021. (Paul Stevens via AP)WASHINGTON – Charles Lewis, a former Washington bureau chief for The Associated Press and The Hearst Newspapers who tirelessly advocated for the release of AP journalist Terry Anderson from kidnappers in Lebanon, died Saturday. Lewis campaigned internationally with Anderson’s sister, Peggy Say, with AP support to seek Anderson’s freedom, including several meetings with North. He later served as an assistant chief of bureau in Los Angeles and a bureau chief in Hartford, Connecticut, according to Mears. In 1989, he became chief of the Hearst Newspapers bureau in Washington and later served as senior editor there before retiring in 2013.