Home Christian News Richard Dujardin, Long-Time Religion Reporter, Dies in Fall at 77

Richard Dujardin, Long-Time Religion Reporter, Dies in Fall at 77

He also covered a number of papal trips.

“All of us who became religion writers when Pope John Paul II came on the scene were, I think, very fortunate,” he told religion writer Peter Smith in 2015. “Because of John Paul’s travels, many of us on the religion beat became the most traveled reporters on our respective staffs (except perhaps for travel writers and those covering sports teams).”

 

In between he covered major religious figures like Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell Sr. and the Dalai Lama, along with the day-to-day life of religious communities and ordinary believers in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts.

When the Journal stopped running a dedicated religion page in 2009, Dujardin become part of a breaking news team. But did not slow him down.

“Through the vehicle of breaking news,” he said in 2015, “I was able to cover different aspects of religion news on a timely basis. At times, covering the news in that fashion required my using some of my own resources, such as using my own frequent flyer miles to get to the 2013 papal conclave and subsequent installation. But it was all worth it.”

Mark Patinkin, a columnist for the Providence Journal, described Dujardin in a tribute as a devout Catholic who was “journalistically ecumenical,” able to cover people of all faiths — and no faith — with respect and deep listening. He also wrote about how Dujardin was known for his devotion to getting the story, “the kind of guy who once climbed over fences to get to a car-crash scene.”

“Those of us at the Providence Journal who knew Dick Dujardin, our longtime religion writer, remember him as a low-key guy, always with a bit of a smile, smoking a pipe when that was still allowed, a man without ego in a business where that’s rare,” Patinkin wrote.

Dujardin won a number of the religion beat’s journalism awards,  including the Templeton Reporter of the Year award in 1991as well as three Wilbur Awards.

Dujardin retired in 2013, having never run out of stories to tell.

“Religion writing, as most of us in the field know, is a satisfying experience,” Dujardin said in 2015.

“It allows us to ask important questions that most other reporters usually ignore, allowing us to ask people about their faith lives and to see what really makes them tick. As it is, a lot of motivation behind the good things people do springs from their faith and from the way they perceive God.”

Besides his wife, Dujardin is survived by six children and 12 grandchildren.

This article originally appeared here.