Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist William Lambert, whose article in Life magazine led to the resignation of a U.S. Supreme Court justice, has died at 78.
Lambert died Sunday at Bryn Mawr Hospital of respiratory problems."He is the modern-day father of investigative journalism," said former Philadelphia Inquirer executive editor Gene Roberts, who hired Lambert in 1974 and now teaches journalism at the University of Maryland.
Lambert capped his career with a Life report that helped compel Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas to resign in 1969.
His story, which won the George Polk award for magazine reporting, said Fortas had taken $20,000 in 1966 from stock swindler Louis Wolfson while serving on the bench. Fortas resigned nine days after the story was published.