Former AP correspondent Loyal Gould dead at age 86

CHICAGO (AP) Loyal Gould, a former Associated Press foreign correspondent who later chaired journalism programs at Ohio State, Wichita State and Baylor universities, has died. He was 86.

Among the highlights of Gould's career was filing almost hourly from Berlin when East Germany's communist rulers built the Berlin Wall in 1961. Gould reported on life in East Berlin after the wall was completed and escorted President Richard Nixon and his daughters when they toured the wall, which divided the city until 1989.

Gould died Sept. 8 at his home in Chicago, six years after he was diagnosed with kidney cancer, according to his wife, Yanling Li Gould.

"He was given 18 months to live when he was diagnosed in 2007," she said. "He lived longer than anyone's expectations. He fought hard."

Gould joined the AP in Nebraska in 1957 as the statehouse correspondent in Lincoln. He was named a foreign news editor and U.N. correspondent in 1958. From 1960 to 1965 he reported from Europe for the AP.

Gould was born in 1927 in Chicago and studied in Germany and Switzerland before graduating from Florida State University. He later earned a master's degree and doctorate in Germanic philology the study of languages from the University of North Carolina. He was an instructor at Texas Technological College and a reporter for the Amarillo Globe-Times before going to work for the AP.

Gould, who served in a U.S. Navy underwater demolition unit during World War II, also reported on the trial of 21 Germans who served in Auschwitz during the Holocaust and the opposition of most Germans to such war crime trials.

After working a year for NBC News in Europe and Asia, Gould was named the director of the international journalism program at Ohio State in 1966. He moved on to chair the journalism department at Wichita State in 1970, and chaired Baylor University's Department of Journalism from 1974 to 1993.

After stepping down from Baylor, Gould hit the lecture circuit, promoting an uncensored press in both Africa and Asia.

Gould's first wife, Ilse, died in 2000. In addition to his second wife, he is survived by an 8-year-old daughter, Loyan Ebba. His remains were cremated and a memorial service will be held Oct. 19 in Chicago.