Mourners remember Michael Littlejohns, 'Mr UN'

Tuesday’s moving ceremony, held at East 29th Street’s picturesque Little Church Around the Corner, featured speakers and hymns. Littlejohns’ successor at the UN, Evelyn Leopold, led the tributes, speaking to an audience that included Walter Pfaeffle, formerly of Reuters, and UN journalists Bill Reilly and Tuyet Nguyen. Chaim Litewski, head of the UN’s television service, was also present. Ashes will be scattered later this year.

Littlejohns was Mr UN, Leopold said. While being a Reuters correspondent he was the first port of call with news for diplomats and UN officials. He covered stories at the height of the Cold War and later spent at least ten more years at the UN, stringing for the Financial Times and moderating a now defunct UN television panel programme called World Chronicle.

“I had not spoken to Michael in several years but called him in November when I learned that Wilhelmina Vandermolen, his partner of 50 years, had died in late October,” Leopold said. “He was very coherent, said he was not ill but of course missed her terribly. We spoke and e-mailed several times, including right before he went to hospital. He had donated $1,200 to the Dag Hammarskjöld Fund for Journalists, which I head. He had once been on its board. He also was a past president of the UN Correspondents Association (UNCA).”

Leopold mentioned tributes by former Reuters journalists Walter Bagley and Graham Colville, and Iftikar Ali, former Reuters stringer in Pakistan who now works at the UN. ■