Tom Torok, longtime Inquirer reporter, editor, and data journalism trailblazer, dies at 73

Tom Torok, 73, of Merchantville, a “lifelong journalist” in his own words, an indispensable and tireless reporter and editor at The Inquirer and New York Times, a trailblazing expert on data-driven journalism, a website developer, international teacher, mentor, lecturer, and veteran, died Sunday, March 6, of cardiogenic shock at Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Camden.

Mr. Torok, ever balanced on journalism’s cutting edge, began tinkering with computer punch cards in graduate school at the University of Colorado Boulder in 1973 and wound up creating and directing an elite data journalism team that helped the Times win eight Pulitzer Prizes from 2000 to 2013.

Before that, he spent 1982 to 2000 at The Inquirer as a word-wizard night rewriter, reporter, wisecracking columnist, web application developer, and key member of a computer-assisted reporting team that produced three data-centric Pulitzer Prize finalists.

“He was a genius, an extraordinary reporter, and a hall-of-fame rewrite man,” said Anthony R. Wood, a longtime writer and news editor who often worked nights with Mr. Torok at The Inquirer. “As a data-miner, he could find anything.”

“He worked on profound journalistic undertakings,” said Andrew Lehren, a senior editor at NBC News Investigations and former New York Times reporter. “He saw the big picture.”

Witty, generous with his time and knowledge, and a natural mentor and teacher, Mr. Torok cherished free speech and accurate information, and taught investigative reporting for American University of Central Asia in Kyrgyzstan, and journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and Rowan University.

After his retirement from newspapers in 2013, he spoke at conferences and lectured around the United States and in Ukraine, Russia, and elsewhere to students and other journalists about computer-assisted research, investigative reporting, and writing. He was on the boards of the Nikolaev Center for Investigative Reporting and the California-based Center for Investigative Reporting in Ukraine, and visited the centers and with Ukrainian journalists several times in the last few years.

Asked in 2018 why he cared so much about Ukraine, he said: “[Someone said] their best hope [for freedom] was a free and independent press. So I can’t think of anything better to do than to help toward that end in some small way.”

When the pandemic ended his travel to Eastern Europe, he taught virtually to students in Kyrgyzstan. “Even at the peak of COVID, Tom kept helping people,” said Dylan Purcell, a data reporter at The Inquirer. “That’s who he was. He was ahead of the curve as usual.”

As night rewriter in the 1980s and ‘90s at The Inquirer, Mr. Torok took notes over the phone from reporters at events and “transformed them into stories you’d actually want to read,” Wood said.

He also wrote hundreds of whimsical columns called “The Scene” about local, national and international events, including one that concerned a South Jersey drug user who inadvertently drew police to his apartment by testing whether the Burlington Township 911 emergency call actually worked.

He ended the column with: “Now, perhaps the guy is pondering another weighty world issue: Does Burlington Township have Dial-A-Prayer?”

“His voice is in those stories,” said his daughter, Elena.

“I remember his intelligence, his wit and his skill with data that he wore so lightly. He was a great colleague who quietly made the people around him better.”

In 1991, he produced a 6,780-word special report on the lessons of Operation Desert Storm that appeared in The Inquirer’s Sunday magazine. Its first five sentences are classic Tom Torok: “It was a moonless night. A few stars twinkled through high, wispy clouds. From the air, the lights of Baghdad glistened on the northern horizon. ‘I could see the outline of Baghdad lit up like a huge Christmas tree,’ Steve Tate recalled. ‘The entire city was just sparkling at us.’ ”

In 1999, The Inquirer won the Scripps Howard Foundation’s Roy W. Howard Award for public service journalism for its reporting on the manipulation of crime statistics by Philadelphia police. In conjunction, Mr. Torok created a remarkable online data base at which readers could see police incident reports on 700,000 crimes from 1991 to 1997.

As projects editor at the Times, Mr. Torok and his eight-person team produced award-winning data reporting for stories on railroad and workplace safety, the Sept. 11 attacks, and other complex issues. In an online tribute, Times reporter Robert Gebeloff said Mr. Torok’s “pioneering concepts” had a “major impact” on the growth of data journalism everywhere.

“He created teams in the newsroom that are common now,” said Mr. Torok’s son, Stephen.

He returned to The Inquirer for a few years as a part-time data journalism consultant after he left the Times, then joined Lehren and others to train journalists in Ukraine, Russia, and elsewhere.

“His pearls of wisdom made me a better journalist,” said Kristen Graham, a reporter at The Inquirer who worked with Mr. Torok during his second stint. “He was incredibly smart and great at his job. And he was incredibly kind.”

Born March 27, 1948, in Elizabeth, N.J., Mr. Torok graduated from Carteret High School in 1966, spent nearly four years in the Air Force, got a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Florida State University, and quit graduate school in Colorado to become a newspaper reporter.

He wrote for the South Dade News Leader in Florida, the Gloversville Leader Herald and Glens Falls Post-Star in New York, the Courier-Post in Camden, and the Bulletin in Philadelphia before landing at The Inquirer.

He married fellow reporter Cece Lentini in 1982, and they had daughter Elena and son Stephen. “We bonded with our values and our interest in the news,” his wife said.

He was good at pool; liked to cook, write letters, and talk politics; and was known for his elaborate pranks and love of bad puns and jokes. He rooted loudly for the New York Yankees, was an usher for a season for the Camden Riversharks minor-league baseball team, and volunteered as a guide and docent at the National Constitution Center, Independence National Historical Park, and the Mutter Museum.

“On a tour and in life,” said Inquirer reporter and editor Craig R. McCoy, “you would never find a better guide than Tom Torok.”

He wrote his own obituary that was published as a death notice in Thursday’s Inquirer, and former colleagues flooded social media with tributes when the news broke of his death. They recalled his “pioneering concepts,“ “unconventional” ideas, and “the mirthful gleam in his eye.”

In addition to his wife, son, and daughter, Mr. Torok is survived by former wife Lena Maria Cooper, a sister, and other relatives. Three brothers died earlier.

Visitation with the family is to be from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, March 12, at the Falco, Caruso & Leonard Funeral Home, 6600 Browning Rd., Pennsauken Township, N.J. 08109. A memorial service is to follow. Interment is private.

Donations in his name may be made online to the n-ost border crossing journalism project to support journalists in Ukraine.