Tom Torok, journalist who worked for New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, dies at 73

Thomas Torok, a New Jersey journalist who worked on 12 Pulitzer Prize reporting teams during 31 years with the Philadelphia Inquirer and the New York Times, died on March 6 after a short illness.  He was 73.

Torok began his career in journalism in 1974 as a reporter for the South Dade News Leader and worked for the Leader-Herald and the Glen Falls Post-Star in upstate New York before joining the Courier-Post in South Jersey in 1978.   He joined the Philadelphia Bulletin in 1980 and the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1982 as a columnist and reporter.  He was part of a team that won four Pulitzer Prizes for the Inquirer.

He moved to the New York Times in 2000 as a projects editor and data team manager and remained there until his retirement in 2013.    The Times won eight Pulitzer Prizes from projects Torok worked on there.

As an adjunct professor, Torok taught journalism at Rowan University from 1996 to 1999 and at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism from 2001 to 2009.

As a retiree living in Merchantville, Torok worked as an usher, ticket taker and Fun Zone attendant for the Camden Riversharks minor league baseball team.   He worked as a docent at the National Constitution Center, as an Independence National Historical Park guide, and as a Mutter Museum docent.

At the Philadelphia-based medical museum that displays human remains, Torok “enjoyed greeting guests with a smile and a wink and whispering: ‘I see dead people,’” his obituary said.

In 2017, he became a supervisory board member for the Center for Investigative Reporting in Ukraine and was an associate professor at the American University of Central Asia in Kyrgyzstan teaching investigative reporting.

Torok served in the U.S. Air Force from 1966 to 1970.   He became the first Air Force soldier to be certified for maximum proficiency for the F4 Phantom fighter jet.

He grew up in Carteret – his obituary said he “just barely” graduated from Carteret High School “where he held and may still hold the record for riding in a commercial clothes dryer” – and graduated summa cum laude from Florida State University.  When he ran for student body president at FSU, the election ended in a tie and he lost a coin flip.

Torok also enjoyed what he called the “health triangle.”

“He’d walk from home to a local brew pub and from there to a local tavern and then from there back home,” his obituary stated.

He is survived by his wife, Cecilia, two children, and other family members.

A memorial service for Torok will be held at the Falco/Caruso & Leonard Funeral Home in Pennsauken at 3 PM on Saturday.

In lieu of flowers, the Torok family asks that donations be made to N-Ost, a non-profit investigative journalism organization working in support of their colleagues in Ukraine, with a note in the comments section that donations are in memory of Tom Torok.