In Memoriam: Rudy Abramson

Rudy Abramson, a former longtime Washington reporter for The Times who wrote a highly praised biography of American statesman W. Averell Harriman, has died. He was 70.

Abramson sustained massive head injuries in a fall Tuesday at his home in Reston, Va. He died late Wednesday at a hospital in Fairfax, Va., according to a friend, John Bennett.

A staff writer in The Times’ Washington bureau from 1966 to 1993, Abramson was hired to cover science and became one of the first national reporters assigned to the space program.