Revered Folha reporter Clóvis Rossi dies at 76

Rossi worked at the newspaper since 1980 and covered historic events, presidential trips, World Cups and even wrote a column

São Paulo

Legendary journalist Clóvis Rossi passed away early Friday morning (14) in São Paulo.

He died at home where he was recuperating from a heart attack that he suffered last week. He leaves a wife, to whom he was married for more than 50 years, as well as three kids and three grandkids.

Rossi, a columnist and member of the Folha editorial board, published his last article on Wednesday (12), titled "Medical Bulletin," in which he explained his absence from the newspaper. He thought of this final column as "an update owed to my readers if there are any left." His newspaper colleagues appreciated his ironic and relaxed style. "They even lied saying they were missing me", he wrote.

Journalist Clóvis Rossi - Eduardo Knapp/Folhapress

Born on January 23, 1943, in the Bexiga São Paulo neighborhood, Clóvis began working in journalism in 1963. He worked at the Correio da Manhã, O Estado de S. Paulo, and the Jornal do Brasil newspapers. He was also published in the magazines Isto É and Autoesporte and the newspapers Jornal da República and El País, where he maintained a blog. He had been with Folha since 1980.

He won various journalism awards, including the Maria Moors Cabot award from Columbia University, the Gabriel García Márquez journalism award the Ayrton Senna award for political journalism.

He wrote several books including, "Clóvis Rossi, Special Envoy, 25 Years Around the World," "Militarism in Latin America," and "What is Journalism."

He covered many historic events, several presidentialial trips, World Cups, and Olympics. He was a Folha correspondent in Buenos Aires and Madrid. He also frequently attended the Davos World Forum.

"Folha and Brazilian journalism lost one of their most successful reporters, certainly the most experienced. Generations of professionals admired Clóvis for his independent thought, willingness and speed of work and quality of coverage. He will be missed," said Folha's Editorial Director, Sérgio Dávila.

At 1.98m, Rossi was a basketball player for the Sirio Sports Club. In soccer, he was a fan of Palmeiras and Barcelona. He said he had an unfulfilled dream in journalism: to be a beat reporter for the Champions League.