Eulogy

By John F. Stacks

Usually when we speak about journalists displaying courage, we mean they have the courage to pursue difficult stories that offend powerful people, or the courage to write a story that cuts against the conventional wisdom. KARSTEN PRAGER, our colleague here at TIME, had that sort of courage in abundance. But throughout his life, which ended when he lost a fight with lymphoma a few weeks ago, he showed a deeper, personal bravery that made him someone very special indeed. As a German boy of eight, he and his mother and siblings made a perilous escape west out of occupied Czechoslovakia to avoid being trapped under the coming Russian terror. And in his first job with TIME, in 1965, he was one of our most fearless war correspondents in Vietnam. He repeated that role in the vicious war in Lebanon in 1975. He then held postings around the world and became the managing editor of TIME's international editions, building a fledgling into what is today a thriving global presence for this magazine. He was demanding of the people who worked for him and equally tough on the people he worked for, expecting his own high standards to be applied below and above him. He did this all with a twinkle in his eye and a gruffness that wasn't even skin deep. Along the way, his heart failed him, several times, but he continued jetting around the world to get more stories and interview leaders ranging from the awful--Saddam Hussein--to the awesome--Nelson Mandela--to the truly historic--Mikhail Gorbachev. In 1987, hours before he probably would have died, he received a heart transplant. He bravely endured near fatal attempts by his body to reject the new heart and came back to work and to more adventures. When he fell ill late last year, the doctors didn't think he would make it past Christmas. But in March, when TIME celebrated its 75th birthday, Karsten Prager, resplendent in his tuxedo, was among the partygoers. He never gave up, right up to the very end when he died in the arms of his wife LaVerne, a person with courage equal to Karsten's. Several hundred people gathered in New York City last week to remember him. That was painful, but also joyous, because we were lucky to have known Karsten Prager.

--John F. Stacks