It is with heavy hearts that we announce the unexpected death on July 1 of UConn Journalism Professor Emeritus Wayne Worcester. He had been a professor emeritus for the past 13 years and a professor of journalism at UConn from 1987 to 2013. He was 78.

Wayne had an impressive career at the Providence Journal, where he was a staff writer, features writer, copy editor and co-editor of the Sunday Journal Magazine. He previously taught journalism part-time at Roger Williams College and the University of Rhode Island. He was an innovative and engaging professor, who lectured on newswriting and managed several hands-on labs in which beginning journalism students wrote stories on deadline. He also taught feature writing, magazine writing, copy editing and literary journalism.

A gifted writer, Wayne was the author of two Sherlock Holmes novels, "The Monster of St. Marylebone" and "The Jewel of Covent Garden." He co-wrote "The Essential Researcher," a comprehensive research guide for journalists and nonfiction writers, with Maureen Croteau, his wife and the longtime head of the UConn Journalism Department.

In Providence, Wayne had reported on the Bonded Vault heist, a 1975 theft of more than $30 million in valuables from safe deposit boxes mostly belonging to the Patriarca crime family. He followed up on the crime for 35 years and detailed it with co-authors Randall Richard and Tim White in the entertaining 2016 nonfiction book, "The Last Good Heist: The Inside Story of The Biggest Single Payday in the Criminal History of the Northeast."

In an interview with UConn Today in 2011, he said that while the media landscape had changed dramatically during his career, the essentials of journalism that he taught remained the same. "What needs to be at the center of it all has not changed one iota, and that is, verifiable fact – content that is valid, content that can be relied upon for its accuracy and usefulness in understanding the truth," he said.

The visitation for Prof. Worcester will take place on Wednesday, July 8 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Potter Funeral Home at 456 Jackson St. in Windham. A mass will be held on Thursday, July 9 from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at St. Thomas Aquinas Chapel at 46 North Eagleville Road on the UConn campus in Storrs followed by his burial in nearby Storrs Cemetery.

Obituary: https://www.potterfuneralhome.com/obituaries/wayne-worcester

Wayne's Last Lecture at UConn: