Andy Rooney dead at 92

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(CBS News) Andy Rooney, the “60 Minutes” commentator known to generations for his wry, humorous and contentious television essays - a unique genre he is credited with inventing - died Friday night in a hospital in New York City of complications following minor surgery. He was 92, and had homes in New York City, Rensselaerville, N.Y. and Rowayton, Conn.

“It’s a sad day at ‘60 Minutes’ and for everybody here at CBS News,” said Jeff Fager, chairman of CBS News and the executive producer of “60 Minutes.” “It’s hard to imagine not having Andy around. He loved his life and he lived it on his own terms. We will miss him very much.”

Rooney had announced on Oct. 2, 2011 in his 1,097th essay for “60 Minutes” that he would no longer appear regularly.

cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57319150/andy-rooney-dead-at-92/
 
Andy Rooney, Steve Jobs, Bear Bryant all died within 6 weeks of retirement
 
gilliam said:
Andy Rooney, Steve Jobs, Bear Bryant all died within 6 weeks of retirement
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I am not sure about Bear Bryant (a US college football coach, if I recall), but it seems pretty clear that Rooney and Jobs were already in failing health, and that they worked until they were no longer able to do their job.

RIP Andy Rooney, you had a long and productive life.
 
NY Times:
Andy Rooney, a Voice of ‘60 Minutes,’ Dies at 92
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Andy Rooney, whose prickly wit was long a mainstay of CBS News and whose homespun commentary on “60 Minutes,” delivered every week from 1978 until 2011, made him a household name, died on Friday in New York City. He was 92 and lived in Manhattan, though he kept a family vacation home in Rensselaerville, N.Y., and the first home he ever purchased, in Rowayton, Conn.
CBS News said in a statement that Mr. Rooney died after complications following minor surgery.
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In late September, CBS announced that Mr. Rooney would be making his last regular weekly appearance on “60 Minutes” on Oct. 2. After that, said Jeff Fager, the chairman of CBS News and the program’s executive producer, he would “always have the ability to speak his mind on ‘60 Minutes’ when the urge hits him.”
But a little more than three weeks after that appearance, CBS announced that Mr. Rooney had been hospitalized after developing “serious complications” from an unspecified operation.
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Mr. Rooney entered television shortly after World War II, writing material for entertainers like Arthur Godfrey, Victor Borge, Herb Shriner, Sam Levenson and Garry Moore. Beginning in 1962, he had a six-year association with the CBS News correspondent Harry Reasoner, who narrated a series of Everyman “essays” written by Mr. Rooney.
But it was “A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney,” his weekly segment on “60 Minutes,” that made him one of the most popular broadcast figures in the country. With his jowls, bushy eyebrows, deeply circled eyes and advancing years, he seemed every inch the homespun philosopher as he addressed mostly mundane subjects with varying degrees of befuddlement, vexation and sometimes pleasure.
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He admitted to loving football, Christmas, tennis, woodworking and Dwight D. Eisenhower, one of the few politicians who won his approval because, as an Army general during World War II, he had refused to censor Stars and Stripes, the G.I. newspaper for which Mr. Rooney worked. He also claimed to like shined shoes and properly pressed pants and had machines in his office to take care of those functions, although somehow he always managed to look rumpled.
But he was better known for the things he didn’t like. He railed against “two-prong plugs in a three-prong society,” the incomprehensibility of road maps, wash-and-wear shirts “that you can wash but not wear,” the uselessness of keys and locks, and outsize cereal boxes that contained very little cereal.
“I don’t like any music I can’t hum,” he grumbled.
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May he rest in peace.
 
I used to love his funny little commentary.

In Nomine Patris, et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, Amen

Requiem Æternam dona ei domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei,
Requiescat in Pace,

In Nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, AMen
 
you know, years ago he admitted to being an athiest. I wonder if he changed?
 
I used to think he had a lot of common sense but I changed my mind, when I found out he did not believe in God. I hope he changed before his death.
 
He was funny. You are correct also about what lies beneath the surface.

He was atheist and socialist. This is just about as far away from saintly as you can get.

Many in America were duped by his character on 60 minutes and other media spots. He was painted to be a likeable old curmudgeon. It worked for the most part because no one was allowed to see the character beneath the surface and only a few could spot the flaws in logic he espoused.

In his peak years, Americal was still reeling from the open rebellion against tradition and morality that began in the 1960’s. Rooney was a comfortable character to get to know. Sort of like Chicken Soup for the American soul. Even today, some lament his passing and sing his praises. How very sad.
 
If it’s true he was an atheist, then he was one of the nicest ones in the public eye; not exactly the religion-bashing Marilyn Murray Ohare types (which you’re better off calling an anti-theist). I didn’t watch 60 Minutes much, but I always found his commentaries on everyday stuff to be hilarious.
 
BaileyJoe said:
I used to think he had a lot of common sense but I changed my mind, when I found out he did not believe in God. I hope he changed before his death.
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I hope so as well.
Btw, I found this linked on another blog, one of his old newspaper columns:
If a writer puts his mind to it, its possible for him to make almost everyone mad. I may do that today. As a person who often agrees with the card-carrying, pinko, Commie, liberal, left-wing members of the Eastern establishment, Im surprised to find myself against abortion. You wont find me out on the street with a placard or throwing a bomb at a clinic, but I dont approve of abortion.
Chicago Tribune: Chicago news, sports, weather, entertainment

Chicago Tribune: Chicago news, sports, weather, entertainment
All the people in favor of giving women the right to choose an abortion believe most of the things I do. Generally speaking, I like the people in favor of abortion better than I like the ones against it, but I`m on the side of the people against it.
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[snip]
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Every newspaper has had an editorial on the abortion issue. The New York Times, in an editorial a few weeks ago, called for tolerance from both groups. It was one of those Let-us-now-make-every-effort-t o editorials, but the argument for and against abortion doesnt lend itself to tolerance, understanding or compromise. As they say, theres no such thing as being a little bit pregnant. Abortion is either right or its wrong and we ought to decide. Ive decided what I think.
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Several things I have read on Rooney point to him being more agnostic than atheist.

I always enjoyed his views. Made ya think!
 
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