Al Neri, award-winning reporter

IT WAS a tough way to break into reporting on the state capital.

Albert J. Neri had been in Harrisburg to report on the state government for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for only a week when he was summoned to a news conference called by state Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer on Jan. 22, 1987.

Dwyer had been convicted of accepting bribes from a California company to land a lucrative state contract. He was to be sentenced the next day and was sure to get prison time.

As Neri and the other reporters watched in horror, Dwyer produced a pistol, put it in his mouth and killed himself as press and TV cameras recorded the deed.

Al Neri won an award for his report on the suicide, one of numerous honors the South Philly native would receive in 27 years as a newspaperman, mostly covering state politics and government for a number of papers.

He died Saturday of complications of cancer treatment. He was 58. He had been living in the Homestead Center in Harrisburg for the past 15 months.

His death drew comments from numerous sources he had covered in his career, including former Gov. Tom Ridge, who said Al was "so professional and such a good man. He served the public with a sense of history, a work ethic, and he knew everybody.

"I think that of anything he has ever written, the best story that will be chronicled will be the grace and the dignity and the courage and the spirit he demonstrated during the past several years. The best story is the one that he wrote with his life, not with his pen."

Al also received an accolade from imprisoned Vincent Fumo, who, when he was a biology and current-affairs teacher at Bishop Neumann High School, had Al as a student.

In a letter sent from the federal penitentiary at Ashland, Ky., Fumo, the former state senator and power-broker convicted of mail and wire fraud and other charges in 2007, said Al was a fine student, "and a great reporter, smart and able and he knew what he was doing."

Al Neri was born in Philadelphia to Albert Neri Sr. and Mary Neri and grew up in the Packer Park area of South Philadelphia. He graduated from St. Richard's Parochial School and Neumann, later St. John Neumann High and now Neumann-Goretti.

He graduated from the Temple University School of Journalism in 1974. His first reporting job was with the Camden Courier-Post. He joined the old Evening Bulletin in 1975 and covered mostly South Jersey news.

He left the Bulletin in 1979 to join the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He first covered Pittsburgh City Hall before moving to the capital. He arrived in Harrisburg as the late Robert P. Casey Sr. was sworn in as governor.

In 1993, Al joined the Erie Times-News as a capital reporter. He first covered Ridge when he was a congressman. After Ridge became governor in 1995, Al covered the doings of his administration until the paper closed its Harrisburg bureau in 2001.

Al was co-founder and editor of the Insider, an electronic newsletter for Pennsylvania political junkies, from 2002 to 2009.

"He reveled in covering politics," said Post-Gazette writer Marylynne Pitz. "He lived it, walked it, breathed it. He could tell you who was going to run and why that person was going to win or lose."

He is survived by his wife, Caroline Boyce; a son, Daniel; two daughters, Jeanette Quinlan and Emma Neri; a brother, Phillip, and his parents.

Services: Memorial service 11 a.m. June 4 at St. Stephen's Episcopal Cathedral, 221 N. Front St., Harrisburg.