Foreign Correspondent Seymour Topping dies at 98

Seymour Topping, one of the most accomplished foreign correspondents of his generation, has died at age 98.

His daughter Rebecca says in an emailed statement that Topping passed away peacefully at White Plains Hospital.

Topping graduated from the University of Missouri -Columbia School of Journalism in 1943.

As a correspondent for the AP in 1949, he was eyewitness to the fall of Nanking, and Topping was first to report it to the world.

After postings to London as diplomatic correspondent and West Berlin as bureau chief for the AP, Topping in 1959 joined The New York Times, where he was to work for the next 34 years.

He retired from the Times in 1993 and served as administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes at Columbia University until 2003.