George E. Bria

George Emil Bria (March 2, 1916 – March 18, 2017) was an Italian-American journalist who worked for the Associated Press (AP). He spent part of his early career as a war correspondent covering the Italian Campaign of World War II, reporting on the surrender of German forces and witnessing the corpse of recently deceased Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Bria later became the chief AP correspondent at the United Nations and retired in 1981. He also wrote gardening columns, tending to his own vegetable garden in Westchester County, New York after retiring.

Spouses:

Mary Bria
Arlette Philippous Brauer (2000–2017)

Career

Bria was born in Rome and immigrated with his family to Waterbury, Connecticut at a young age. He graduated from Amherst College and Middlebury College and began his career as a journalist with the Waterbury Democrat and Hartford Courant.

Bria was hired by the Boston AP bureau in 1942, reporting on the Cocoanut Grove fire. He was sent to the Rome AP bureau in May 1944, using his fluency in French and Italian to report daily dispatches from the Allied front in Italy. Bria was flown to Milan in April 1945 to view the body of Benito Mussolini shortly after his execution, and was the first AP newsman to report on the surrender of German forces in Italy on May 2. After the war, Bria joined the post-war bureau in Germany, reporting on the Nuremberg trials and the Berlin airlift, before returning to Rome and New York.

Bria returned to the foreign AP desk in 1961 as a supervisory editor, known among subordinantes for favoring brevity in reports, once stating that "the D-Day landings could be reported in 400 words". He became the chief AP correspondent at the United Nations in 1972, and retired in 1981. Bria continued in retirement as a freelance writer, publishing columns on gardening until 2002.

Personal life

Bria lived with his wife Mary until her death in 1998. He married Arlette Philippous Brauer, a former writer and editor for medical magazine MD, in 2000. He lived in Pound Ridge, a suburb of New York City in Westchester County.

Bria was also an avid gardener and tennis player, participating in national over-85 tennis tournaments.