Hal McClure, who covered two Arab-Israeli wars and living a successful career as a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press died at 92 in California, McClure died on Sunday at a Laguna Hills hospital following surgery to relieve a blood clot on his brain from a recent fall, his sister Virginia said.
McClure began his career as a general assignment reporter at a small newspaper in Central California. His first foreign assignment was in Singapore, and then was based in Malaysia. He was in New Guinea as a reporter, and in 1962, McClure was transferred to Turkey, putting him in charge monitoring Israel and Cyprus. He covered the 1964 visit of Pope Paul VI in Cyprus.
He covered the two Arab-Israeli wars in 1967 and 1973, while working in the Tel Aviv bureaau.
McClure's bureau's messenger Marcus Eliason remembered his boss fondly.
"Hal was a firm but kind employer and a good friend," said Eliason, now an international editor with AP in New York. "He was steeped in the fundamentals of journalism - accuracy, fairness, speed, directness of prose, alertness to both sides of every story. He sought to instill these qualities in all the journalists who started out in his bureau, and having himself gotten into the profession on the bottom rung, he was generous in giving other neophytes opportunities to cover big stories."
His final stint with the AP was serving as the news agency's bureau chief in Newark, New Jersey. After retirement, he began videographing short films to some of the most exotic locations. Much of his Youtube channel is devoted to his travel films.
McClure also gave lectures, presenting their short films to audiences around the world. He published his autobiography "Adventuring" last year.
A bulk of his work was featured in Travel Adventure Documentary magazine, where he served as an editor.
