Miriam Rider, journalist liaison at Foreign Press Center, Taco Night fan, 72

Miriam Rider, member of the National Press Club for nearly 19 years and a popular assistant to journalists at the State Department's Foreign Press Center, died Dec. 1. She was 72 and lived in Rockville, Maryland.

Rider, who often lunched at the Club and loved attending Taco Night in the Reliable Source, was known as Mimi to friends and family. She worked for 30 years as an information specialist at the Center, which is housed in the National Press Building. "She was an outstanding reference librarian, a wonderful colleague and a friend," Henry Mendelsohn said. "Miriam's job at the Foreign Press Center was the model for our U.S embassies' Information Resource Centers starting in the '90s. During the course of my 20-year career overseas I met many foreign journalists who had met Miriam while working at the FPC during an assignment in D.C., and they all spoke fondly of her."

"I met Miriam many years ago when I was working for EFE, a Spanish news agency, and I would often cover events at the State Department," Maria Peña said. "Miriam was always very professional and always sweet and kind to me. We would have long chats and sometimes coincided in the Metro. I always learned something interesting from her, and I will be forever grateful for her friendship."

George Santulli, a Center colleague, said he and Miriam "enjoyed working together on many summits hosted by the White House, and worked with journalists covering the political conventions. Even though we had just landed in a city, Miriam somehow already knew what the best places to eat were. She was a vivacious, creative, energetic person who loved life and squeezed every ounce out of it."

Times of India Washington, D.C.-based foreign editor Chidanand Rajghatta wrote a tribute to Rider published in his paper, calling her "a librarian for the ages." He went on describe her resiliency in the face of technological change. "[Miriam] was a librarian in the pre-Internet/ Google/Wikipedia/Social Media era when we did not have information and news breaks at our fingertips to be retrieved with a few keystrokes. Miriam was who we depended on, although, even after the arrival of the electronic information age, she was invaluable because she transitioned so quickly and effortlessly into the new information paradigm."

He, too, remarked on her enthusiasm for socially interacting with the same journalists she was assisting in their research. "Foreign correspondents in Washington DC were a lot more convivial back in the 1990s. Miriam joined us often for a 4 p.m coffee session each day at the National Press Club [Truman] lounge where some of us from Asia, from the Far East to the Middle East/West Asia/MENA countries, would gather for a pow-wow, our 8 to 12 hours ahead of US eastern standard time allowing us to decompress after the day’s deadline had passed (this was before the crazy 24×7 news cycle descended on us)."

Rider is survived by her siblings, Henry Rider and Tali (John) Stepp; and nieces, Jodi Rider and Melanie Rider. An obituary can be accessed here.