FormerWSJEditor, Who Wrote Book About Walking 330 Miles from D.C. to N.Y.C., Dies at 65

Mar. 15, 2025

Neil King Jr.Photo:Neil King Jr./Instagram

Neil King Jr./Instagram

A journalist who inspired many with his 330-mile walk from Washington, D.C., to New York City, has died. He was 65.

Neil King Jr., a former global economics editor for theWall Street Journal, died on Tuesday, Sept. 17, from complications related to esophageal cancer, his wife, Shailagh Murray, toldThe Washington Post.

King, who got a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Columbia University before graduating from Northwestern’s Medill Graduate School of Journalism, moved to Prague in 1992 as a freelance correspondent, according to hisWSJbio.

While abroad, King also began working for the newspaper, where he had a number of roles over the years — and as thePostnoted, he contributed toWSJ’s Pulitzer-Prize winning coverage of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He left the paper in 2016.

Neil King Jr. poses with a poster of his book ‘American Ramble’.Neil King Jr./Instagram

In March 2021, he set off on an incredible 330-mile journey, which he chronicled in his 2023 book,American Ramble.

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“Determined to rediscover what matters in life and to see our national story with new eyes, Neil turned north with a small satchel on his back and one mission in mind: To pay close attention to the land he crossed and the people he met,” read a description of the book — and over the course of the 26-day journey, that’s exactly what he did.

“There just really is a different America out any of our doors if we go about it at the pace of a walker, do it over a stretch of time, and really truly pay attention,” he toldThe Washingtonianlast year.

“The earth under our feet and [being] out in the world itself is a tangible thing," he added. “The longer I went, the more I was in sync with things.”

Neil King Jr.Neil King Jr./Instagram

In July to commemorate his 65th birthday, King reflected on his life and cancer journey in an emotionalFacebook post.

“I remember feeling embarrassed when I turned forty, and again, still more, when I turned 50,” he wrote.

“Then a diagnosis at 58 put the whole of my sixties in doubt and upended my sense of time. Instead of mourning its passage, I learned to celebrate the having of it," he added. “Today, I am proud to be 65. I am blaring it from the rooftops.”

source: people.com