CHRIS CRUCIAL: RIP, Ben White

A good man gone.

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1. A loss

I was midway through writing the lead item for tonight’s newsletter about Joe Biden’s big border announcement — more on that below — when I came across this tweet:

I was shocked. Stunned. So much so that I had to check, twice, to make sure it was the “Ben White” I knew.

I use the word “knew” loosely. Ben and I weren’t best buds. I think I met him once. Maybe twice.

But we walked a lot of the same paths.

Ben got his start in journalism at the Washington Post where he held one of the coolest (and most sought-after) jobs in that whole place: Research assistant to the legendary political reporter and columnist David Broder.

By the time I got to WaPo, Ben had moved on. He made a bunch of other stops along the way — at the New York Times, Politico, the Financial Times, CNBC and The Messenger.

I followed his career because it felt, well, a lot like mine — especially in these last few years. Ben wrote, primarily about economics. I wrote about politics. But, we we were both middle-aged guys trying to navigate the increasingly fraught world of journalism. (Ben lost his job when The Messenger shuttered earlier this year.)

And Ben, in his non-journalism life, seemed like such a normal guy. Yes, he cared about economics and economic journalism. And politics. But he also rooted for the Yankees. (His last tweet — on May 7 — was about the Bronx Bombers beating the Astros.) I would listen to him talk about the economy (and the local DC teams) on the main sports radio station in Washington.

I saw myself in him. It felt to me like we would be friends. I think we all have people like that in the outer orbit of our lives.

Now, look. I have dealt with death — sudden death — a lot over the past few years. My father died in 2020. My father-in-law died last year.

It sucked. I still miss them. I wish they were around so I could tell them things they would appreciate — or laugh at. There’s a hole there that won’t ever be totally filled. I’ve come to accept that.

But, the death of someone who is close to your age, who has traveled a similar path career-wise and with whom you shared a sensibility about the world — even from afar — feels different somehow to me.

I suppose it’s because it reminds me of my vulnerability. Ben died of what his partner described as a “brief illness.” This, of course, can happen to anyone at any age. But as I get older — I’m 48 now — I feel as though I know more and more people who have either died suddenly or been diagnosed with cancer or face some other major health issue than I ever have before.

I didn’t — and don’t — know the right way to honor Ben’s passing. After all, he was not my best friend. He was simply someone I knew and admired in journalism. And I don’t want to make his passing all about me.

But it felt odd to simply retweet something about his death and move on. (By the way, the comments on the tweet by his partner about Ben’s death are a fitting tribute to the life he led and how much he was admired.)

So, I decided to do two things:

1) Give you all a chance to get to know him — even a little bit — by dedicating the top of tonight’s newsletter to him. Thanks for letting me do that.

2) Make sure I remembered as I was shuttling my kids between a hitting lesson and soccer practice tonight that it’s these little moments we need to cherish, the mundane happenings of everyday life. Because, one day, those opportunities will be gone forever. And we don’t know when that day is. So we need to realize these are the good old days. These are the times we will always remember.

RIP, Ben.