{"id":11561803,"date":"2025-07-18T06:00:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T10:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/?p=11561803"},"modified":"2025-07-17T18:33:33","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T22:33:33","slug":"ernest-pat-furgurson-former-baltimore-sun-columnist-and-historian-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/2025\/07\/18\/ernest-pat-furgurson-former-baltimore-sun-columnist-and-historian-dies\/","title":{"rendered":"Ernest \u2018Pat\u2019 Furgurson, former Baltimore Sun columnist and historian, dies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ernest B. “Pat” Furgurson, a former Baltimore Sun national affairs columnist, Washington bureau chief and a Civil War historian who also held posts in Moscow and Saigon, died of heart failure Sunday at his Washington home. He was 95.<\/p>\n

Born in Danville, Virginia, he was the son of Ernest B. Furgurson, a printer at the Danville Register and Bee, and his wife, Passie Ferguson. He was a first lieutenant in the Marine Corps and earned bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees from Columbia University after attending Averett College in Danville.<\/p>\n

He worked nights at the Associated Press in New York City, the Roanoke World-News and the Richmond News Leader before joining The Sun in 1956. His date of employment coincided with the day the essayist and critic H.L. Mencken died.<\/p>\n

In a 2019 article in the American Scholar, he listed his ambitions \u2014 \u201cget out of town, go to Washington, don a trench coat, chase wars.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a new hire he was a general assignment reporter and covered strip mining in Garrett County, illegal game hunting on the Eastern Shore and local politics.<\/p>\n

He also boarded the foundering African Queen, a Liberian tanker that had been abandoned by its crew off Ocean City, and wrote of efforts to salvage the damaged ship.<\/p>\n

\"Obit:<\/p>\n

Mr. Furgurson soon became a member of The Sun\u2019s Washington bureau. He initially commuted to Washington and recalled catching a morning train with congressmen Eddie Garmatz and George Fallon to make it to the Capitol by 10 a.m.<\/p>\n

He wrote of Richard Nixon\u2019s defeat by President John F. Kennedy in 1960. He also covered the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba and the workings of the Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson administrations.<\/p>\n

\u201cPat was the ultimate wordsmith,\u201d said Sun colleague Gilbert Lewthwaithe. \u201cGrowing up in Danville, he was sensitive to racial issues, but he was not an emotional writer. His experience was vast, nationally and internationally. He had strong opinions about race relations and humanity in general.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was an acute observer of politics,\u201d Mr. Lewthwaithe said. \u201cAnd as an ex-Marine, he liked journalists who could hit the ground running and be speedy both on their feet and in their minds.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was a foreign correspondent at The Sun\u2019s Moscow bureau and reported on the Vietnam War from Saigon.<\/p>\n

He wrote the main story from the Republican and Democratic political conventions and began writing a column in 1969. He was named bureau chief in 1975 and by 1981 his column was syndicated. He retired in 1992.<\/p>\n

Another colleague, Muriel Dobbin, said, \u201cPat was a superb reporter and a very good writer and was very funny as well. I think he introduced the world to the martini.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was the kind of reporter who liked to go out drinking with cops. He could also be tough. He once yelled at me when I pronounced \u2018Potomac\u2019 wrong,\u201d said Ms. Dobbin, who was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. \u201cPat was very much a Southerner and could tell some very funny stories about Lyndon Johnson.\u201d<\/p>\n