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For Russert, a Host of Tributes From Near and Far

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NBC's Tim Russert, 1950 - 2008

Tim Russert, Washington bureau chief for NBC News and moderator of the top political talk show "Meet the Press," died suddenly on Friday at the NBC studios in Washington. Russert was 58. He is survived by his son Luke and wife Maureen Orth.

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"God and politics, what a Sunday roundtable that will be," read another.

Courtenay Dunn was in tears as she viewed the sidewalk tributes. "It's amazing that it feels like losing a friend," said Dunn, a federal employee who said "Meet the Press" was among her favorite shows.

"I've been preoccupied with it ever since I heard. I think he must be the preeminent journalist of our time, as political commentator," Dunn said.

Russert was a board member for 13 years of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington, which said yesterday that he had given or directed millions of dollars to the organization, without fanfare.

Fischer, who was with Russert when he collapsed at the bureau Friday, said he was about to record the words "Our issues this Sunday -- ." She accompanied him in an ambulance but said she knew before they reached Sibley Memorial Hospital that he wasn't going to make it.

"It was very quick," Fischer said. "It was pretty instantaneous. We couldn't get him back."

Staff writer Steve Hendrix contributed to this report.

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