Born Oct. 1, 1951, in Boise, Idaho, Christopher J. Harper passed away on July 23, 2025.
Harper graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism and English literature from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 1973. He earned a master's degree in journalism in 1974 from Northwestern University.
He received many accolades during his time as a reporter. At Newsweek, he reported on Jonestown, Guyana, in November 1978 and was nominated for a National Magazine Award.
As the Beirut bureau chief for Newsweek from 1979 to 1980, Harper reported on the continuing Lebanese civil war and the Iran hostage crisis. He was expelled from Iraq in 1980 for his reporting about Saddam Hussein, whom Harper described as "The Butcher of Baghdad."
Harper was the Cairo bureau chief for ABC News in 1981 and was expelled by Anwar Sadat in September of that year for interviewing a previously expelled correspondent in Beirut.
During his work in Rome, as a correspondent and then as bureau chief from 1981 to 1986, Harper reported on the 1981 plot to kill Pope John Paul II, Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982, the marine barracks bombing of 1983 that left 241 soldiers and Navy seaman dead and the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847—for which he and his team were nominated for five Emmy awards.
In 1986, Harper joined ABC News 20/20 and worked there until he left the news business to teach journalism at New York University in 1995. At Temple University, he headed the Multimedia Urban Reporting Lab and taught multiple classes within the journalism department, including Journalism and the Law, International Reporting and Ethics of Journalism.
Harper edited and wrote seven books, including one of the first about the digital age and its influence on journalism titled And That's the Way It Will Be. His book Flyover Country was published in 2011 and documents the history of his high school graduation class of 1969 from Lincoln High School in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
In January 2013, Harper started a column on the journalism industry for The Washington Times. His last column was published in May 2015.
