Thomas Thurston Hendrick

Veteran TV reporter Thomas T. Hendrick of Bethesda died July 11 of natural causes. He was 77. He is survived by his wife of 40 years, Blanca, and son, Will. A private memorial is planned for August. Tom reported for WTTG-TV in Washington, CNN, WCCO in Minneapolis, Minn., and WDBJ in Roanoke, Va., including dangerous assignments in Beirut, Baghdad, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Haiti. Following his broadcast career Tom founded communications firm Zayas Hendrick Mediaworks. Tom was also an award-winning musician and avid historian known for love of his family and friends. He is also survived by twin brother Bill Hendrick (Laura) of Atlanta and Patricia Rodgers (Tom) of Warsaw, Ill.

By Bill Hendrick (Tom’s twin, older by three minutes)

Thomas Thurston Hendrick was a veteran television reporter who ducked bullets and bombs in wars in Beirut and Iraq and risked his neck in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Haiti, not to mention crime-ridden streets of Washington, D.C., New York and other major cities.

Everyone called him Tom. Except me. I called him Tommy. He called me Billy when I was Bill to everyone else. We were twins, and he died July 11 of natural causes in Bethesda, Md., at the age of 77. I was three minutes older. He’ll be missed terribly and I can’t believe he’s gone because, well, he’s always been there.

We played with our Mattel ThunderBurps together on our five-acre “farm” in Staunton, Va., in the ‘50s, raised 35 chickens as pets, and named each one. Played music together in the Athens High School Band in the ‘60s after the family moved to Georgia during the economic recession of 1957-58, graduated from Athens High in 1966 and the University of Georgia in 1970, where we were in the same fraternity, Theta Chi, and both majored in journalism and became reporters. He went into TV; I worked for wire services and newspapers. I always kidded him that he was a TV star with billboards showing his face but that I was a ‘’real’’ reporter.

After graduation from UGA we never lived in the same city but talked by phone several times a week and got together for vacations almost annually at his home or my parents’ place in South Boston, Va., or his in-laws’ second home in Hilton Head.

Tom is survived by his wife of 40 years, Blanca, and his son, Will, and his family was his first love. He also had a passion for playing the euphonium (and making the All-State Band in Georgia in 1966). When he moved to Minneapolis after his first reporting gig at WDBJ in Roanoke, Va., he founded the WCCO Brass Ensemble under the auspices of his employer, WCCO-TV, where he covered science among other things, and also played in the area’s John Philip Sousa Band. When he wasn’t reporting he was practicing his horn.

Then he moved to New York to work for CNN, at the time a fledgling news network, and finished his reporting career at WTTG-TV in Washington, later founding the communications firm Zayas Hendrick Mediaworks. Tom was also an avid historian who created the Washington website, yoreDC.org, highlighting the capital’s origins with short stories, films, funny anecdotes and narration.

Tom had many friends everywhere he worked, the last being Geoffrey Manifold, a photographer with whom he worked in Washington. They covered many stories together, and Geoff in his Porsche squired Tom around not just D.C. but the northeast.

“It can be boring covering Capitol Hill, the White House or the State Department,” Geoff said. “And Washington can be dangerous, too. From shootings to fires, train wrecks, storms, it can get scary. Tom was a true newsman.”

Another WTTG colleague, Hillary Howard, said what she loved about Tom was his “incredulity at the ridiculous in life. I loved his laugh. His twinkle. His heart. He taught me lot about the business by his professionalism. I remember we were editing a piece about the University of Maryland’s new wind tunnel and Tom strapped himself to something inside the tunnel, showing the different wind speeds and the wind velocity it can create. When it got around 100 miles an hour the skin on his face got all contorted and we both laughed so hard I was crying. He influenced a lot of people.”

Tom was also a fine poker player, and loved the wild games like ‘’Deuces and Jacks and Kings with the Ax and a pair of natural sevens takes the whole pot,” which I never won with so many wild cards. (Once I did draw into a Royal Flush on the last card at a game at my late dad’s house, but broke out in laughter and everybody dropped out.)

Said WCCO colleague Tom Linder: “A group of us from the newsroom would play poker together on a recurring basis. Cigars all around, with a drink or two to keep the gas interesting. Tom’s secret weapon was his sense of humor. It was common for him, in the midst of a progressive betting hand, to wise crack about the idiosyncrasies of life in Minnesota. Tom was an easy guy to like.”

And he was also a great bluffer. “You could have a straight or three of a kind and he could make you fold with a pair of ducks (deuces). Funny as hell.”

Bob North said Tom “was a virtuoso on euphonium and knew the literature inside-out. He performed two complicated solos with the Sousa Band. He was one of the special guys in my life.”

The bands (which I think Tom loved more than his newsroom jobs) were his joy, and they played on Mississippi steamboats and Renaissance Fairs and in small cities in the metro Minneapolis area.

Carol Bergquist, who worked with Tom at WCCO and also played flute in the Sousa Ban, said “Tom had a way of making me feel I was the most important person in the room, whether talking while waiting for a rehearsal or a gig to start or just having lunch somewhere. I could always call him even if I didn’t have anything to say. I miss his husky laugh and sense of humor so much.”

Jim Newman, another WCCO alum who sounds just like you’d expect an anchorman and reporter to sound, said “we were proud of ourselves and respectful of our compatriots because we saw each other as high achievers.

“The newsrooms physical layout was horrendous. Cramped Space. Low ceilings. Poor ventilation and lots of cigarette smoke. But we loved it. Tom was a powerful force. Handsome, forthright, eager, engaging. His knack for looking a person in the eye and saying something interesting and to the point was part of his charm. He was open hearted, self-effacing, able to connect, honest. He wanted to be understood. I was sorry when he left for CNN.

Minneapolis lawyer Sam Stern put it simply: “This one hurts.

“Tom and I met in 1979 after I'd returned home from Washington, D.C. He spoke about reporting he had done for WCCO at a young lawyers event in Mankato I was attending as the Young Lawyer representative to the ABA for Minnesota and North Dakota. When it was time to drive back to the cities, Tom's headlights weren't working. I had him tailgate me all the way to Minneapolis, using my car's headlights as his guidance. That was the start of a beautiful relationship.”

After Tom moved, he returned to Minneapolis from New York or Washington for WCCO reunions and “I was his date. He was the kind of guy who would help you move.”

Tom Ziegler, also of WCCO, said one of Tom’s favorite assignments was his six-month tour during Lebanon’s civil war.

“He said his main job was avoiding getting shot,” Ziegler said, who described Tom as the “newsroom character". Whenever Tom got a story assignment he liked, a photographer he’d worked well with or a script approved in short order, his standard response was, ‘Thank you, you’re a fine man and fine American.”

Tom also was a fine mentor, said Gina London, with whom he worked in DC.

“Back in the 1990s when I was a young journalist at WTTG I had the opportunity to go to Romania for three months as a volunteer trainer with an NGO. I was nervous about leaving my beginning career…but II talked with Tom and remember him telling me that if I didn’t do it I would always regret it.’’ So she went.

Don Shelby also said Tom had a huge impact on his career. “Tom showed me the ropes and became a wonderful friend. We shared the same sense of humor and laughed at jokes no one else laughed at. I lost a great colleague when he left for CNN.”

And I lost a great brother.