Terry Anderson, world traveler Associated Press correspondent A man who became one of America’s longest-held hostages, after being snatched from a street in war-torn Lebanon in 1985 and held for nearly seven years, has died aged 76.
Anderson, who described his kidnapping and tortured imprisonment by Islamic terrorists in his best-selling memoir “Den of Lions” in 1993, died Sunday at his home in Greenwood Lake, New York, his daughter Sulome Anderson said. Said.
Anderson died of complications. recent heart surgeryHis daughter said.
“Terry was deeply committed to on-the-ground eyewitness reporting and demonstrated great bravery and determination during his journalism and hostage years. We greatly appreciate the sacrifices he and his family made as a result of his work.” said Julie Pace, AP senior vice president and executive editor.
“He never liked being called a hero, but that’s what everyone called him,” Sulome Anderson said. “I saw him a week ago and my partner asked him if there was anything on his bucket list, anything he wanted to do. He said, ‘I’ve lived a lot and I’ve done a lot. I’m satisfied. Am .”
After returning In the United States in 1991, Anderson led an itinerant life, giving public speeches, teaching journalism at several major universities, and operating, at various times, blues bars, Cajun restaurants, horse ranches, and gourmet restaurants.
He also struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder after a federal court concluded that the country played a role in his capture, winning millions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets, then losing most of it in bad investments. . He filed for bankruptcy in 2009.
After retiring from the University of Florida in 2015, Anderson settled on a small horse farm in a quiet, rural area of Northern Virginia, which he discovered while camping with friends.
“I live in the country and it’s great weather and peace and a nice place, so I’m doing OK,” he said with a laugh during a 2018 interview with The Associated Press.
In 1985, Anderson became one of several Westerners kidnapped by members of the Shia Muslim group Hezbollah during the war that had thrown Lebanon into chaos.
After his release, he was welcomed as a hero at the AP’s New York headquarters.
Lou Boccardi, the company president at the time, said in a memo to staff on December 4, 1991: “Finally, the vacant chair at the AP’s desk has once again been occupied. Terry Anderson has been freed.”
Boccardi said Anderson’s plight was never far from his coworkers’ minds during the ordeal. “Rejoice with me that Terry’s nightmare is over,” he wrote.
As the AP’s chief Middle East correspondent, Anderson had been reporting on the increasing violence in Lebanon for several years as the country struggled. war with israelWhile Iran funded extremist groups trying to overthrow its government.
On March 16, 1985, on a day off, he had taken a break to play tennis with former AP photographer Don Mel and was about to drop Mel off at his home when gun-toting kidnappers pulled him from his car.
He was likely targeted, he said, because he was one of the few Westerners still in Lebanon and because his role as a journalist had aroused suspicion among Hezbollah members.
Terry Anderson, the longest-serving American hostage in Lebanon, smiles with his 6-year-old daughter Sulome as she leaves the U.S. ambassador’s residence in Damascus, Syria, following Anderson’s release on December 4, 1991. Anderson, the globe-trotting Associated Press correspondent who became one of America’s longest-held hostages after he was snatched off a street in war-torn Lebanon in 1985 and held for nearly seven years Died on Sunday, April 21, 2024. He was 76 years old. , (AP Photo/Santiago Lyon)
“Because in their words, people who ask questions in strange and dangerous places have to become detectives,” he told Virginia newspaper The Review of Orange County in 2018.
This was followed by almost seven years of brutality, during which he was beaten, tied to a wall, threatened with death, often had guns held to his head and was kept in solitary confinement for long periods.
Anderson was the longest-serving hostage of several Western hostages kidnapped by Hezbollah over the past few years, including Terry Waite, the former envoy of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who arrived to try to negotiate Anderson’s release. .
According to descriptions by Anderson and other hostages, he was also their most hostile prisoner, constantly demanding better food and treatment, arguing with his captors over religion and politics, and teaching other hostages sign language and messages. Where to hide so they could communicate privately.
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He managed to maintain a quick wit and a biting sense of humor throughout his long ordeal. On his last day in Beirut he called the leader of his captors to his room and told him that he had heard a false radio report saying that he had been released and was in Syria.
“I said, ‘Mahmund, listen to this, I’m not here. I’m gone, kids. I’m on my way to Damascus.’ And we both laughed,” he told Giovanna Dell’Orto, author of “AP Foreign Correspondents in Action: World War II to the Present.”
They later learned that their release was delayed when their kidnappers planned to release them for a rendezvous with a third-party mistress and they had to find someone else.
Mel, who was in the car during the kidnapping, said Sunday that he and Anderson had an unusual bond.
Mel said, “Our relationship was much broader and deeper, and more important and meaningful, than just that one incident.”
Former hostage Terry Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press, smiles during a news conference despite his broken glasses in Damascus, Syria, December 6, 1991. Anderson, the globe-trotting Associated Press correspondent who became one of America’s longest-held hostages after being snatched off a street in war-torn Lebanon in 1985 and held for nearly seven years, his Died on Sunday, April 21, 2024, at the age of 76. , (AP Photo/Santiago Leo)
The Mail credits Anderson with launching his career in journalism, pushing for the young photographer to be hired full-time by the AP. Their friendship deepened after Anderson’s release. They were best men at each other’s weddings and are in constant touch.
Anderson’s humor often masked the PTSD he admitted to suffering until his later years.
He said in 2018, “The AP found some British experts in mortgage dissolution, clinical psychiatrists, to counsel my wife and me and they were very helpful.” Which was done.
“So, when people ask me, you know, ‘Are you over it?’ Well, I don’t know. No, really it’s there. I don’t think about it much these days, but it’s not the center of my life.”
Anderson said Faith as a Christian Helped him to get rid of his anger. And what his wife later told him helped him move forward: “You can’t have happiness if you have hatred.”
At the time of the kidnapping, Anderson was married and his future wife was six months pregnant with their daughter, Sulome.
The couple married soon after his release, but divorced a few years later, and although they remained on friendly terms, Anderson and his daughter remained estranged for many years.
“I love my father very much. My father has always loved me. I didn’t know it because he wasn’t able to show it to me,” Sulome Anderson told the AP in 2017.
Father and daughter reconciled after the publication of her critically acclaimed 2017 book, “The Hostage Daughter”, in which she talks about traveling to Lebanon to confront one of her father’s kidnappers and ultimately forgive him. Was said somewhere.
Anderson said, “I think she did some extraordinary things, took a very difficult personal journey, but also accomplished an important piece of journalism.” “He’s a much better journalist than I am now.”
Terry Allen Anderson was born on October 27, 1947. He spent his early childhood in the small Lake Erie town of Vermilion, Ohio, where his father was a police officer.
After graduating from high school, he turned down a scholarship to the University of Michigan in favor of enlisting in the Marines, where he rose to the rank of staff sergeant while seeing combat during the Vietnam War.
After returning home, he attended Iowa State University, where he graduated with a dual degree in journalism and political science, and went to work for the AP shortly thereafter. He reported from Kentucky, Japan and South Africa before arriving in Lebanon in 1982 as the country descended into anarchy.
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“Really, it was the most fascinating job I’ve ever had in my life,” he told The Review. “It was intense. There’s a war going on – it was very dangerous in Beirut. Terrible civil war, and it went on for about three years before I was kidnapped.”
Anderson was married and divorced three times. In addition to his daughter, he is survived by another daughter, Gabrielle Anderson, from his first marriage; a sister, Judy Anderson; and a brother, Jack Anderson.
“Although my father’s life was filled with extreme suffering as a hostage in captivity, in recent years he found quiet, comfortable peace. I know he will be remembered not for his worst experience, but through his humanitarian work. Will choose to be together. Vietnam Children’s FundCommittee to Protect Journalists, Homeless Veterans and Many Other Incredible Causes, Sullom Anderson said in a statement Sunday.
Memorial arrangements were pending, he said.
