Veteran Journalist Peter Mackler, 58

Peter Mackler, 58, a veteran journalist with Agence France-Presse, died June 20 at George Washington University Hospital after having an apparent heart attack at work in his Washington office. He had been AFP's chief editor for North America since 2006.

Mr. Mackler, an American who spoke fluent French, joined AFP in 1979 after beginning his journalism career at United Press International in New York. As a reporter or editor, he covered the Gulf War in 1991; conflicts in Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan; the Palestinian intifada; the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York; and George W. Bush's presidency. In the past year, he supervised the Washington bureau's coverage of the presidential nomination race.

Colleagues described him as indefatigable, impassioned, a workaholic who loved journalism.

"Peter did everything at great speed, the quintessential wire service man," Henriette Lowisch wrote on a blog set up in his memory. "He valued his time, and he didn't suffer to be bored."

At the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, he set up an introductory course in journalism called Project Plato. As colleague Jay Branegan recalled, "he envisioned it as teaching 'life skills' to kids, particularly underprivileged kids in Washington, D.C. He felt that even if you're not going to become a journalist, you need to be able to write clearly, to read critically, to know how to do research, to know how to formulate questions, talk to strangers and people of influence, how to organize material, how to assess the information you have."

In 2004, he set up Global Media Forum, an international media training program based on his experiences with Project Plato. He also trained journalists in a number of developing countries, including Lebanon, Iran, Malaysia and Cyprus.

"He truly, truly loved teaching," said his daughter, Camille Mackler.

In a statement, AFP Deputy Managing Editor Robert Holloway described Mr. Mackler as "a man of many parts" who will be remembered for "his uncompromising commitment to the highest professional standards, his deep loyalty to his friends and colleagues and a dedication to teaching young journalists."

He was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., grew up in the Flatbush section of the borough and received an undergraduate degree in psychology from Brooklyn College in 1971. He worked as a counselor for autistic and schizophrenic children in his Brooklyn Heights neighborhood before joining UPI, where, as longtime colleague Richard Sisk recalled, "we were chasing fire engines and cops in New York."

Sisk, writing in the New York Daily News, said his old friend combined his excellent French, his command of English and his familiarity with New York street lingo "to charm or cajole his way to exclusives from heads of state and the generals of the moment to the violent drunks who blocked the roads of Bosnia."

After joining AFP in 1979, he moved to the agency's desk in Hong Kong in 1982 and became bureau chief in Sydney and Singapore. He worked in Brussels before becoming chief editor in Washington in 1994 and later the bureau's deputy regional editor. He was then named senior reporter at AFP's headquarters in Paris and was assigned to cover terrorism. He returned to Washington in 2004.

Survivors include his wife of 31 years, Catherine Antoine of Bethesda; his daughter, of New York, and another daughter, Lauren Mackler of Providence, R.I.