Alvin Bessent, longtime Newsday reporter and editorial writer, dies at 73

Those who knew Alvin Bessent remember him most for two special qualities — a keen intellect and a curiosity about the world.

His education spanned medicine, the law and journalism, and his news reporting was based on meticulous research, as were the "well-stated" editorials he wrote for Newsday when he moved to the Opinion section during a 29-year career at the paper.

But he also was just a really nice guy, kind and unfailingly polite, friends and former colleagues said Tuesday.

"Alvin was a gentleman" and a "philosophical thinker," said Monte Young, Newsday's assistant managing editor for newsroom multimedia.

Bessent, 73, died on Monday of complications from treatment for prostate cancer at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, said his wife, Valerie Graves Bessent of New York City.

"He passed very peacefully," she said of her husband of 41 years, calling him "this beautiful, curious man."

Graves Bessent added: "Alvin was curious and unapologetic about what he was interested in. It could be anything: government — he'd pick apart budgets in Albany. I think he read the Affordable Care Act, for example. I believe that’s a couple thousand pages. That was him."

Alvin Bessent grew up in Pontiac, Michigan, the son of Thomas Bessent and Elora Bessent, who predeceased him. He attended local public schools, where he met his future wife.

"We went to junior high school and high school together," Graves Bessent said, recalling those days at Jefferson Junior High School and Pontiac Central High School. "Alvin was always an exemplary student."

Alvin Bessent received his bachelor's from Michigan State University, where he became a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, and earned a master's from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism in 1982.

He was a John S. Knight fellow at Stanford University from 1997 to 1998. The fellowship, awarded to working journalists, focuses on "helping these journalism leaders succeed as effective change agents, improving the access to information people need to create and sustain democratic communities," the university's website says.

Bessent also studied for a year at Howard University's medical school. But his wife said he discovered "it wasn’t really what he wanted to do for the rest of his life." He went to law school briefly, but when he got accepted to Columbia, "he decided journalism was it," she said.

Graves Bessent said her husband "believed in informing people as much as he could by giving them quality information." At Newsday, "he did a lot of reporting on the courts. The treatment of minority people by the justice system was an area of great interest to him," she said. And when he moved from the reporting side of Newsday to the editorial page section, his focus "extended to politics and government."

Alvin Bessent joined Newsday in 1985. Joye Brown, now a Newsday columnist and associate editor, recalled recommending his hiring as a Hempstead Town reporter when she was Nassau County editor. "Alvin went to medical school [and] law school," Brown said. "He brought his brilliance to that town beat. He kept working it when he hit the court beat … No matter what he did, he brought his intelligence to it. He could turn any subject inside out."

Beyond all that, Brown said, "he was a gentleman" and "basketball crazy."

James Klurfeld, a former editor of Newsday's editorial page, said Bessent presented his views in a "nonconfrontational way. He was very forceful on what it was like to be Black and why we should pay attention. He was very logical. He had his facts. He didn't get emotional about things. He was just a terrific person to have as a colleague. He was also thoughtful and prepared."

Rita Ciolli, who succeeded Klurfeld as editorial page editor, said Bessent "was always a voice of reason for us." She said he was "willing to look at things 360 degrees," as he took in other perspectives. "He was also a beautiful writer. His arguments — he could present them clearly and they were always well stated."

Lawrence Levy, executive dean of Hofstra University's National Center for Suburban Studies and a former Newsday editorial writer, said of Bessent: "He was thoughtful in marshaling his arguments, and in the sorts of questions he would ask that made you rethink where you were coming from."

Levy added, "He was an all-around great person."

Bessent retired from Newsday in May 2015, three months before his 30th anniversary at the publication.

In addition to his wife, Alvin Bessent's survivors include his sisters Thomasina Ellis of the Chicago area and Lorene Phillips of Pontiac, Michigan; a stepson, Brian Graves of Pontiac; and a grandson, Brian Graves II. He was predeceased by sisters Wilhelmina Hines, Catherine Graves and Sandra Burris.

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There will be a memorial service Wednesday (Sept. 7) at noon at the National Jazz Museum, West 129th St. in Manhattan. Bessent will be buried in the cemetery of the church his family founded in Waynesboro, Georgia, his wife said.

By Olivia Winslow

olivia.winslow@newsday.com@newsollie