Club member Thomas Weyr, journalist for UPI, ABC and author of several books, died March 11

National Press Club member Thomas H. Weyr, an author and journalist who spent decades covering the news for both international and domestic audiences, died on Friday, March 11, at his home in Bronxville, New York. He was 94.

Weyr spent decades in newsrooms, working for United Press International, ABC Radio Network, the Research Institute of America, and DMNews. An author as well as a newsman, Weyr published books on the history of World War II, the rise of the Playboy empire, and the history of Vienna under Hitler through the present.

He was born on Sept. 9, 1927, in Vienna, Austria, the son of Siegfried Weyr, an academic painter and writer, and Helene Weyr, a physician. 

Following the annexation of Austria by the Nazis on March 11, 1938, he fled to England with his mother in November of that year. In May of 1941, he and his family moved to America to escape the German Blitz of London, settling in Philadelphia. There, he attended LaSalle College High School and later graduated from Columbia University in 1948.

Following his graduation from Columbia, Mr. Weyr returned to Vienna with his parents where he spent a year in medical school before switching to focus on psychology and art history, and in 1952, earned a PhD from the University of Vienna.

After trying his hand at a novel, he took a job with United Press International in Vienna in 1953. In 1955, he took a position at UPI's foreign desk in Washington, D.C., where he covered the Eisenhower administration. During this stint, he became a member of the National Press Club, on July 1, 1955, and was an active member when he died – marking a membership of 66 years, 9 months.

In 1959, he returned to Vienna as Eastern European correspondent for ABC and Newsweek, among other publications. In the spring of 1961, he was assigned to report on President John F. Kennedy’s activities in Vienna when Kennedy came to the city for a summit with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. Later in 1961, Weyr was sent to Berlin to report on the beginning of the construction of the Berlin Wall. His reporting was met with a submachine gun belonging to the East German Police pointed directly at him.

In 1963, Weyr returned to New York, taking a job with ABC as a news writer, covering national domestic news. In mid-1966, Mr. Weyr moved to Newsweek. In 1968, he joined the Research Institute of America, where he would spend 25 years publishing a newsletter on business and current affairs.

In addition to his day job as a correspondent, Weyr published several books, including "Reaching for Paradise: The Playboy Vision of America," a detailed history of Hugh Hefner’s Playboy empire. In researching the book, Weyr spent a week interviewing Hefner at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. Another notable book, "The Setting of the Pearl: Vienna under Hitler," chronicled the history of his hometown of Vienna from the Anschluss in 1938 through present day.

He ghost-wrote several books, including "Answer to History," Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s posthumous autobiography published in 1980, and former CIA director William Casey's book, "The Secret War Against Hitler." He also translated several books into English from German and French.

Weyr, married three times, is survived by four daughters, Teddie Weyr of Vienna, Austria; Garret Weyr of Los Angeles, California; Sascha Weyr-Lemay of Sherman, Connecticut; and Tara Nicole Weyr of Venice, California; two stepdaughters, Allison Devlin of Bronxville, New York, and Frances Shuker-Haines of Williamstown, Massachusetts; a stepson, John Shuker, of Cortland Hills, New York; and six grandchildren.