Joseph Laitin, 87; Public Affairs Officer for 5 Presidents
Joseph Laitin, 87, a onetime newspaperman who served under five presidents as a public affairs officer, died Saturday of congestive heart failure at his home in Bethesda, Md.
Born in Brooklyn, Laitin left high school before graduation to pursue a career in newspapering. His first job was with the Brooklyn Eagle. From there, he found work with what was then United Press and Reuters. With Reuters, he covered the Japanese surrender in 1945 and the Nuremberg trials of Nazi officials.
Laitin was working as a freelance writer in Hollywood when asked to join the Kennedy administration in 1963. He stayed on after the president’s assassination, serving as assistant White House press secretary under Lyndon B. Johnson before transferring to the Bureau of the Budget.
Laitin worked in a variety of press officer capacities through the Nixon, Ford and Carter administrations. He left government service in 1981, after Ronald Reagan took office. In the mid-1980s, Laitin accepted a two-year appointment as ombudsman for the Washington Post.
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