Sad news from the Mercury News today - long time columnist Leigh Weimers has died, according to the paper.
He was 76 years old.
Weimers was a mainstay for Merc readers for decades, writing about everything San Jose.
He graduated from San Jose State University in 1957. That's when he went from editor of the Spartan Daily to reporter at the Mercury News. He stayed at the Merc until he retired at the age of 70 in 2005.
The cause of death was not immediately announced, but Weimers wrote on his blog that he was having surgery to repair or replace a heart valve on Wednesday.
He said in earlier entries that he was going to a doctor after noticing "some heart irregularity and shortness of breath."
His last blog entry:
You know how older people get. You ask them a simple question – “How’s it going?” – and you run the risk of getting a 20-minute dissertation on all their health problems. Way TMI.
That being said, though, I fear that I haven’t been following my own advice about “How’s it going?” brevity much lately. A lot of these blog postings have been health related. My health.
That’s natural, of course. Most of us think our problems are pretty darn interesting. In my case, my problems and their solutions constitute the reason for this blog. Things have happened to me that may well happen to you, too. I want you to be prepared, not surprised.
Still, I don’t want to be hypocritical. I don’t want to be one of those geezers who bore friends to tears with too much detail about the workings of my innards. I want you to keep asking me, “How’s it going?” without fear.
So I’ll simply say that I’m having surgery tomorrow to repair or replace a valve in my heart. It may leave me slightly out of touch for a while. I’ll write about it – briefly – when I’m back.
How’s it going? That’s how.
NBC Bay Area's Garvin Thomas spoke to Weimer's on the eve of his retirement in Nov. 2005.
Below is that report.
