Of all the scoops veteran newsman Tom Robbins dug out of the crevices of New York City, one of his favorites involved a local real estate magnate who would go on to be president of the United States.
“I did a story about Donald Trump early in his career that I think got to the heart of how he operates,” Robbins said in an interview with City University’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, where he taught for many years.
“I wrote about the workers he had hired — mostly undocumented laborers from Poland — to tear down the old Bonwit Teller building so he could build Trump Tower. They couldn’t understand why he was one of the richest men in New York and they weren’t getting paid. So they filed a lawsuit.”
The article by Robbins, who died Tuesday from prostate cancer at the age of 76, ran under the headline “The Art of the Don Deal” on April 15, 1990, in the Daily News, one of his many stops in a splendid, storied career.
A weathered clip of that story hung in his fourth-floor cubicle at the journalism school — and atop the home page of his X account, which he learned to use as efficiently as a noisy manual typewriter.
No matter how much the industry changed, Robbins managed to adapt and stay relevant, reminding students, co-workers and admiring journalists that no technological innovation replaces shoe leather and hard work.
“Reporting is the best job you can have,” Robbins once said. “You get paid to talk to people. I look at my reporter’s credentials as a passport to talk to anyone, from the governor on down, and shine a light on corners that don’t usually get looked at.”
What some would label as “old school,” Robbins would describe as common sense. Consider Robbins’ answers to a Q&A he did on his craft:
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
Robbins: “Please and thank you.”
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
Robbins: “Telephone.”
What’s your favorite social network?
Robbins: “Any good diner.”
“Tom was not just our Investigative Reporter in Residence since 2011,” said Graciela Mochkofsky, dean of CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism. “He was the heart of our commitment to accountability journalism and a beloved mentor to countless students and alumni.”
Jere Hester, a program director at CUNY’s journalism school, worked with Robbins at The News and at TheCity.com, an online news site that covers New York City. He said Robbins was advising students right up until the end of the semester earlier this month.
“One way or another I worked with Tom for the vast majority of my career,” Hester said. “He was just an incredible presence at the newsroom at the Daily News or the newsroom at our J-school.”
Robbins’s resume includes storied stints at the Daily News and the Village Voice. He had also been also been published in The New York Times, The New Yorker, New York magazine and The Atlantic.
His series for The Marshall Project on violence in New York prisons, produced in collaboration with The New York Times, was named a 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist for Investigative Reporting.
“Tom was a good reporter and a good writer,” said Jerry Capeci, a former Daily News writer and founder of the Gangland News website. “But more importantly, he was a really good well-meaning guy and a great friend. It was a pleasure and a privilege to have known and worked with him.”
