John Koenig Jr.

A resident of Athens, Ga. since 1987, he was born in Philadelphia, Pa. on June 12, 1916, attended school and college there and worked in journalism in that city, Harrisburg, Pa. and Washington, D.C.

As a freelance travel writer he was published in large newspapers and magazines across the United States.

An honor graduate in Journalism at Temple University, where he was a varsity swimmer, he attended Graduate School at the University of Pennsylvania.

As Temple campus sports correspondent while a student he went to work full-time upon graduation, in 1941, for the Philadelphia Bulletin, then the nation's largest evening newspaper.

Following World War II military service, when he served two and a half years in Europe with the U.S. Ninth Air Force, and writing two official Air Force Weather Service histories, he returned to the Bulletin, leaving in 1949 to join the Associated Press at its Pennsylvania state capitol bureau at Harrisburg.

In 1956 he was advanced to Washington and during the years there reported on Congress and at times virtually every department of the federal government. One principal assignment was as a special reporter for Pennsylvania affairs, covering the state's Congressional delegation and writing a weekly political, governmental column, “Pennsylvanians in Washington.”

He later was special reporter for Virginia, covering the Virginia Congressional delegation and writing a column “Virginians in Washington.”

He retired in 1985 from the National Forest Products Association in Washington where he was Director of Government Affairs Information and editor of association national publications. Prior to that, he served as Public Information Director for the Railway Progress Institute and in public relations with the National Coal Policy Conference, both in Washington.

He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Marie Hodgson; and a number of cousins.

His travel articles appeared through the years on occasion in the New York Times, Newsday of New York, Boston Globe, Philadelphia Bulletin, Baltimore Sun, Washington Post, Washington Star, Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune, Milwaukee Journal, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle and Christian Science Monitor.

Many of the travel pieces dealt with the homes and haunts of distinguished writers in the United States and Europe including Henry James, George Bernard Shaw, James Boswell, Samuel Johnson, Thomas Hardy, Edith Wharton, Fanny Kemble, P.G. Wodehouse, John O'Hara, Gustav Flaubert, Thomas Mann, Honore de Balzac and others.

A lifelong swimming enthusiast, as well as college rowing, he jocularly termed himself "America's oldest college swimming fan," attending meets at UGA, Navy, Yale and Princeton.

As a youthful swimmer, he was the holder of the Middle Atlantic A.A.U. 100-yard backstroke record and was runner-up in the Penn A.C. national interscholastic 100-yard backstroke.

He joined the National Press Club, Washington, D.C. in 1956 and remained a member through life.

At Athens, he was a member of the Athens Country Club, Athens Historical Society, the Coastal Georgia Historical Society and state historical societies of Georgia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Virginia.

He also held membership in the Thomas Hardy Society of England and the Anthony Trollope Society and P.G. Wodehouse Society of the United States.

His family gives special thanks to his loving caretakers Francis Randolph, Dwain Sanders and Annie Mathews.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the UGA Foundation for Library, 320 S. Jackson Street, Athens, GA 30602, in memory of John Koenig, Jr.

Private graveside services for family members will be held at Oconee Hill Cemetery. The family will receive friends at the Koenig home on Monday, July 9, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Bernstein Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.