Victor Ostrowidzki
reporter
Victor Ostrowidzki, Hearst newspapers reporter, dies at 80
Victor “Vic” Ostrowidzki, 80, a journalist who spent nearly two decades of his 45-year career with Hearst newspapers based at the company’s Washington bureau, died April 7 at a hospice in St. Augustine, Fla.
The former Fairfax County resident had melanoma, said his daughter Alicia Rubin.
Mr. Ostrowidzki was a White House correspondent during the Reagan administration. A native of Poland, he also contributed to Hearst’s coverage of the collapse of Communist governments in Eastern Europe in the 1980s.
In 1997, after covering health care during Bill Clinton’s presidency, Mr. Ostrowidzki retired to Ormond Beach, Fla. He became a professor at Flagler College in St. Augustine, where he taught journalism and politics until his death.
Victor Ostrowidzki was born in the Polish city of Kutno. He immigrated to Sweden in 1947; then to England, where he attended King’s College London; and then to the United States.
He received a bachelor’s degree in 1954 and a master’s degree in 1963, both from Siena College in Loudonville, N.Y.
In the 1950s, Mr. Ostrowidzki became a U.S. citizen and served in the Army in Germany. He worked for Hearst’s Times Union newspaper in Albany, N.Y., from 1952 until 1979, when he transferred to the Washington bureau.
His first wife, Rita de Gonzague Ostrowidzki, died in 1988 after 35 years of marriage.
Survivors include his wife of 19 years, Sharon St. Germain Ostrowidzki of Ormond Beach; three children from his first marriage, Alicia Rubin of Stamford, Conn., Eric Ostrowidzki of Vancouver, B.C., and David Ostrowidzki of Clifton Park, N.Y.; two stepchildren, Laurie Tipton of Flagler Beach, Fla., and David Wolf of Falls Church; a brother; and 10 grandchildren.
— Emily Langer
