May 27, 2011 / 01:17 am
Joseph Feuerherd, the editor-in-chief and publisher of the National Catholic Reporter, died on May 26 at a Maryland hospice facility. Feuerherd, 48, had been fighting cancer for 18 months.
Born on Long Island in 1962, Joseph was the sixth of eight children born to Victor and Lillian Feuerherd. Two of his brothers, Rick and Peter, also became journalists.
He studied history at the Catholic University of America and married Rebecca Bartron, whom he met working at a summer camp for disabled children. The couple had a daughter and two sons.
Feuerherd joined the National Catholic Reporter as an editorial intern in 1984. He worked as its Washington, D.C. bureau chief from 1988 to 1991, before leaving to join the Montgomery County Housing Opportunities Commission.
During that time he continued to contribute to the Reporter as an author. He returned to the paper's Washington bureau in 2002, and was named publisher in 2008.
Feuerherd is survived by his wife and three children.