Richard Michael Levine's Obituary
Richard Michael Levine
06/19/1942 – 05/22/2026
Richard Michael Levine died May 22, 2026 at age 83 after coping with frontotemporal dementia for nine years. He was a brilliant writer and a loving husband, stepfather, grandfather, brother, uncle, and friend. He often made people laugh, but he didn’t tell jokes. He had his own funny things to say.
He was born June 19, 1942, in Brooklyn, the first child of businessman Bernard Levine and homemaker Gertrude Cohen Levine. The family moved to Great Neck, New York, when he was a child, and he grew up there with his brother Kenneth and sister Joan.
After graduating from Great Neck North High School, he attended Wesleyan University, where he received his B.A. in literature in 1963. He went on to earn an M.A. in Slavic languages and literature at the Russian Institute of Columbia University in 1966. He spoke Russian and Polish, as well as French and Spanish.
Richard was encouraged to enter journalism by David Halberstam, whom he met as a Fulbright scholar in Poland, and started publishing articles while he was still in graduate school. Afterward, he became a full-time journalist, writing about everything from shamanism and television to Russian politics and life on the set with Sigourney Weaver. His articles appeared in Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, and many other publications, and his nonfiction book Bad Blood: A Family Murder in Marin County was a bestseller.
He worked as a writer and editor at Newsweek, Esquire, and the Saturday Review and also taught for several years at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. After retiring from journalism, he published a book of short stories, The Man Who Gave Away His Organs: Tales of Love and Obsession at Midlife, and a poetry collection, Catch and Other Poems.
In 2002, Richard married Lucille Lang Day, a poet, writer, and science educator. They inspired each other in writing; shared adventures in Europe, Mexico, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Japan, South Korea, and Alaska; and took great joy in spending time with their four grandchildren.
He was predeceased by his brother Kenneth Levine and stepdaughter Liana Day-Williams. In addition to his wife, his survivors include his stepdaughter Tamarind Fleischman and her husband Phillip Pease; his son-in-law Chase Williams; his grandchildren, Autumn and Devlin Pease, and Brandon and Charlie Williams; his sister Joan Zukas; his niece and nephews, Ariana Bradford, Adam Zukas, and Jason Levine; and his grandniece and grandnephew, Clara and Joshua Bradford. Donations in Richard’s memory may be sent to the charity of your choice.
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