Ben Bradlee, the famed executive editor of The Washington Post, died of natural causes Oct. 21 in his home in Washington D.C., at the age of 93.

In late September, Bradlee entered a special care unit due to declining health as a result of Alzheimer’s.

Bradlee came to journalism after graduating from Harvard, working for the State Department in Paris, before becoming a reporter and editor at Newsweek and finally The Washington Post, in 1971.

Bradlee retired as the executive editor of The Washington Post in September 1991, but continued to serve as Vice President-at-Large until his death.

Even though Bradlee was a recognized and celebrated editor he made mistakes too. As executive editor, Bradlee was roundly criticized in many circles for failing to ensure the “Jimmy’s World,” a profile of an 8-year-old heroin addict, was a legitimate story. He ordered a “full disclosure” investigation to get the truth and it turned out that there was no such addict. Bradlee later apologized to Mayor Marion Berry and the Chief of Police of Washington, D.C., for what turned out to be a fictitious article.