Walter Mears was born on January 11, 1935 in Lynn, Massachusetts, USA. He was married to Carroll Ann Mears, Joyce Lund, Frances Rioux Richardson and Sally Danton. He died on March 3, 2022 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
Political reporter who covered 11 US presidential elections for the Associated Press, 1960 - 2000. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the 1976 race between Republican Gerald Ford and Democrat Jimmy Carter.
He began working for the AP while attending Middlebury College in Vermont.
In 1962, his first wife, Sally, and their two young children, Walter Jr. and Pamela, died in a house fire.
He taught journalism at the University of North Carolina and Duke University.