Remembering NPR’s Wade Goodwyn

• NPR has lost one of its singular and most recognizable voices, as it was reported that NPR’s longtime National Desk correspondent Wade Goodwyn died Thursday, June 8 of cancer. He was 63.

For more than 25 years, Goodwin reported on his home state of Texas and the southwest United States, covering top stories including the Oklahoma City bombing, school shootings, hurricanes, the American Sniper murder trial, and the Boy Scouts sexual abuse scandal.

In a staff email breaking the news of Goodwin’s passing, NPR CEO John Lansing said, “For generations of public radio listeners, including me, he was one of NPR’s iconic voices. Aside from that instantly recognizable voice, Wade was a uniquely gifted storyteller and a brilliant reporter. From the first words of one of his stories, you always knew you were being taken on a journey by a master of our craft. You were in for a true treat, whatever the subject matter.”

It was said that Goodwin’s soothing bass had a way of pulling listeners a little closer to the radio. A profile once described his voice like “warm butter melting over barbecued sweet corn.”

“You know Wade was a poet,” says NPR Sr. Editor Steve Drummond. “The little detail, the little color or sound that he’d seen out in the field, and it just made what he said sparkle.” Vickie Walton-James, a Managing Editor at NPR, noted, “[Wade] was really good at infusing humanity into those situations that sometimes people just want to turn away from,” adding that Goodwin brought a distinctive voice to the network’s breaking news coverage. “He was able to put you in the place and to help you understand what had happened to someone and what the broader implications were,” she says.

Wade Goodwyn is survived by his wife, Sharon, and two daughters, Hannah and Sam. [Photo credit: Allison Shelley/NPR]