Hugh Sidey, 1927-2005.

• Author: Peters, Charles
• Position: Brief Article - Biography

When new members of our staff would ask me why Hugh Sidey remained on our editorial advisory board even though his politics had become more conservative than the Monthly's, I would tell them this story.

In late December of 1968, as we were preparing our first issue for publication in January, Bill Moyers called to say he was experiencing writer's block on a piece he was doing for us and didn't think he could get it finished in time. I felt we had to have the article, so, asked Hugh Sidey, whom I knew Bill admired for his fair-but-tough coverage of LBJ, to go to New York to interview Bill and make the piece into a Q & A. Hugh agreed, even thought he was frantically busy, writing his regular column and had just taken over as Washington bureau chief of Time. We then proceeded to send him on a wild goose chase from Washington to LaGuardia Airport to East 76th Street in Garden City...