Marino de Medici, 89

Marino de Medici, long-time correspondent for Italy's Il Tempo Newspapers and dean of Washington's foreign press corps, died Nov. 15 at his home in Winchester, Virginia. He was 89. 

He was a member of the National Press Club for nearly 52 years and was a frequent diner at the Reliable Source restaurant.  

The cause of death was cancer, his wife Nicki Furlan de Medici told The Washington Post.

According to the Post, he came to the U.S. in 1954 as a Fulbright scholar while working for the Il Messaggero newspaper, got his bachelor's and master's degrees in the U.S., and returned to Italy to work for the Italian news agency ANSA. The news agency sent him back to the U.S. in 1960 and he joined Il Tempo four years later.

He told National Journal in 1985: 

“The role of a foreign correspondent is not just to report the straight news but to clarify, analyze and explain what is going on in the U.S. and to interpret its significance and meaning to his country and the rest of the world. He becomes a player in a sophisticated game and influences policy."