Vincent P. Randazzo, Jr., former city editor and later travel editor of The Times-Picayune, died Sat. February 18, 2017. He was born in New Orleans October 31, 1927, and lived there most of his life until he moved to La Place in 1993. He was a graduate of Jesuit High School and Tulane University where he majored both in geology and journalism. He began his writing career on The Tulane Hullabaloo. After joining The Times-Picayune in 1951 he began writing an oil news column detailing successful wildcatting activities in Louisiana and its offshore area which resulted in new oil and gas fields. He later became a general news assignments reporter and covered politics and government in the metropolitan New Orleans area. Mr. Randazzo was a frequent freelance writer and his contributions appeared in McCall’s Magazine, National Enquirer, McGraw Hill Publications, among other publications. Until his appointment as city editor, he served as special New Orleans correspondent for the New York Times. He won writing awards for excellence from The Press Club of New Orleans in categories of critical review, human interest, business, feature, interview and editorial, and in 1960 won the club’s top news story award for his coverage of the kidnaping of a 10-year-old Gretna girl. During the administration of Dr. Homer Hitt when Hitt sought to improve The University of New Orleans, Mr. Randazzo wrote a series of page one stories entitled “LSUNO: Why Is It Penalized?” The series cited the poor conditions at the lakefront campus, using abandoned naval air station buildings for classrooms and the lack of sufficient state funds from the Louisiana Legislature to upgrade the university. The articles were combined into a pamphlet and mailed to state legislators. Subsequently, state appropriations to the school were increased, and the name changed from LSUNO to UNO. The Alumni Association of the university honored him for the series. In another set of articles he reported on administrative political abuses at Charity Hospital. These articles were applauded by the Louisiana Civil Service League. During the Sixties and under his editorial direction, The Times-Picayune published an annual Deep South Progress edition, highlighting Louisiana’s industrial and business activities. The editions won acclaim from The Louisiana Press Association. When the United States and Russia were engaged in the space race to the moon during the Sixties, Mr. Randazzo began covering activities at the NASA-Michoud facility which assembled fuel tanks for the Saturn and Apollo moon rockets. He wrote a weekly Sunday column, “Space Thrusts,” which highlighted U.S. progress in space travel, and he covered rocket launches at Cape Canaveral, Fla. As a result in 1966 the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics awarded him a Certificate of Appreciation for his news coverage. In 1965 U.S. Rep Hale Boggs inserted some of his writings on space activities into the Congressional Record, stating the “Mr. Vince Randazzo writes a brilliant technical touch so that Saturn rockets were launched at exactly the predicted time – an unmatched accomplishment.” In the same Congressional Record U.S. Rep. F. Edward Hebert wrote that “Mr. Randazzo has done a superior job in keeping the Crescent City informed of progress in the space era.” In 1972 he became city editor of The Times Picayune, a post he held until 1982 when he assumed the position of travel editor. He often said, “I went from one of the hardest jobs to the easiest,” and when kidded about it from fellow employees he smiled, “it’s a dirty job but somebody has to do it.” While he was city editor, he taught a journalism class at Dominican College, now part of Loyola University. As travel editor he began writing first-hand about worldwide land and sea destinations and cruised on more than 40 ships, many of them just being launched as a result of the increase in fly-cruise packages. Travel news in the newspaper grew from a couple of pages to a regular Sunday travel section, which included his weekly “Travel Tips” column. He won writing and photographic awards from the Society of American Travel Writers and the State of Arkansas and was commended for his travel coverage by the Travel Agents of Greater New Orleans. His travel stories were published in various U.S. newspapers by Newhouse News Service. A long time golfer, he enlisted Louisiana corporations to sponsor an annual golf tournament of The Press Club of New Orleans, of which he served as tournament chairman and club vice president. In 1982 he won the Louisiana-Mississippi Associated Press Golf Tournament championship, newspaper division. He was a former member of Riverlands Golf Club in La Place, Colonial Country Club in Harahan and City Park Golf Club in New Orleans. He was the son of Vincent Randazzo Sr. and Josephine Paciera Randazzo and was also preceded in death by two sisters, Rose Lajewski and Angie Moscona. Survivors are his wife, Joyce Caldwell Randazzo; daughter, Suzanne Randazzo Herman, her husband, Fred, grandchildren Jeffrey, Nicole and Eric Herman; son Christopher Randazzo, his wife Caryl, granddaughter Kayte, and great-granddaughter, Everette. Private services were held. To sign the online guest register please visit www.Greenwoofuneralhome.net

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