Gaylord Shaw, journalist who won Pulzer 1978, di at 73

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Former Associated Prs reporter Gaylord Shaw, who broke the news that Print Richard Nixon would rign as evince the Watergate se mounted around him, has died. He was 73. Don Grantham Funeral Home Dunn, Oklahoma, said Wednday that Shaw died Sunday at his home. A e of ath was not released. While workg the AP's Whe Hoe bure, Shaw vered the fall of one print and the rise of another, Print Gerald Ford, who later pardoned Nixon. "Gaylord and I worked that story together, and then he worked the bullet that went on the wire, and that was a pretty major one," Walter Mears, former bure chief for the AP's Washgton bure and a longtime iend and lleague of Shaw's, relled om his home North Carola. "It was great that the AP had a guy you uld rely on to liver everythg there was to liver on a story like that." Shaw later worked for the Los Angel Tim, where he won a Pulzer Prize for natnal reportg 1978, and for Newsday, where he shared a Pulzer for spot reportg 1997. He returned to his native Oklahoma after his retirement. Lou Bocrdi, a former AP print, said Shaw had "a slow se that got wir as he spun out tails of a good story he was workg on. He lived his work." Bocrdi lled Shaw "a straight arrow the sense of keepg his eye on the center of a story." Shaw was born El Reno, Oklahoma, and began his newspaper reer as a 13-year-old sports reporter for the El Reno Amerin. He later worked for the Lawton Constutn before jog AP's Oklahoma Cy bure at age 20. "For most of his life journalism, Gaylord was the youngt guy to do whatever he was dog. He was jt that talented and prec," relled Michael Sniffen, who joed the AP's Washgton staff June 1973, as the Watergate story explod. Jay Perks, who vered Congrs for the news operative the 1970s, relled Shaw's work on an vtigative team. "He was a bulldog; he jt wouldn't stop. He kept dog the rearch," said Perks, a retired journalism profsor om LSU. Shaw retired 2002 and settled Dunn, the hometown of his wife, Judy. He ntued to report ocsnally for The Dunn Banner, cludg the 2005 murr trial of Ricky Ray Malone, who was nvicted and sentenced to ath for killg Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Nikky Green after Green tried to arrt Malone for operatg a mobile methamphetame lab. He won the 1978 Pulzer for a seri of stori about unsafe ndns at hundreds of dams across the Uned Stat and was among Newsday reporters who shared the Pulzer 1997 for verage of the explosn of a TWA jet over Long Island. In addn to his wife, he is survived by three children, a brother, six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. Funeral servic are schled for 2 p.m. Friday at First Christian Church Dunn wh burial Dunn Cy Cemetery. ___ Associated Prs reporter Sean Murphy Oklahoma Cy ntributed to this report.