Paul Horvitz , her husband, died Tuesday from ovarian cancer at their Waltham home.
Robin was a Swiss Army Knife journalist. She covered fires, AIDS, gold madness, hostages in Iran’s Diamond District, and homelessness in hippie communal living.” The former Timeseditor recalled her experiences in a series of tweets Thursday. Condolences and remembrances poured into social media.
Herman was a hockey reporter for the New York Islanders. Herman and another female reporter were permitted to interview players in locker rooms, as their male counterparts were often allowed to do–following Montreal’s 1975 All-Star Game.
In a piece for the Times, Herman recalled how she hoped that her “mini sports history moment” would be quietly overlooked. The locker room became a “circus scene”, with players scrambling for towels, photographers scrambling for cameras, and Herman writing that the two female reporters suddenly became “the news of their hour.”
Herman wrote, “It was a significant moment for it loudly announced the fact that female athleteswriters are a reality and that they must dealt with.”
Herman was assigned to other projects at the Times. She later wrote for The International Herald Tribune and worked in its health section at The Washington Post. Herman also wrote “Fusion:The Search for Endless Energies” in 1990.
Herman was appointed assistant dean of communications at Harvard University’s School of Public Health, and he retired in 2012.
The Association for Women in Sports Media tweeted, “Robin helped pave a way for so many women in sport by breaking many gender barriers that allowed us follow in her footsteps,”
Herman was born in New York City in 1951. Herman also achieved other firsts during her life: Herman was also part the first class of Princeton University women admitted.
She leaves behind two adult children as well as other relatives. The Boston Globe reported Herman’s ashes will be laid to rest in a Cambridge, Massachusetts cemetery. A gathering of remembrance is planned later.
