Conrad Fink, 80, journalist, teacher

Conrad Fink, 80, who taught generations of young journalists at the University of Georgia after a career as a foreign correspondent and executive for the Associated Press, died Saturday in Athens, Ga. He had been battling prostate cancer.

Mr. Fink had taught as a journalism professor since 1983 at UGA, where students either feared or revered him for his gruff persona and merciless editing of class assignments and published news stories. "He would say, 'Each year thousands of students come to the University of Georgia, and I try to save a few,' " said Les Simpson, publisher of the Amarillo Globe-News in Texas and a student of Mr. Fink's in the 1980s.

His approach to teaching resembled that of a newsroom editor more than an academic, drawing on his 20 years of experience with the AP. In a career that spanned 1957 to 1977, he was a night editor in Chicago, a foreign correspondent, and an AP vice president in New York. In the 1960s, he covered major news stories, including several wars and armed conflicts, in India, Vietnam, the former Soviet Union, and Middle East.

His influence reached beyond his classes at UGA. He also wrote 11 journalism textbooks on subjects ranging from editorials and sports writing to newspaper management.

"Conrad Fink lived a reporter's life," said an AP executive editor. "He traveled far from home to explore and tell stories for the AP, then brought decades of experience home to the classroom. Among his many contributions to journalism, the greatest may have been using his broad experience to launch several generations of new journalists."

A native of Michigan, he served in the 1950s as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Marines before landing his first newspaper job at the Daily Pantagraph in Bloomington, Ill. During his AP career, he also served in London as executive director of the AP-Dow Jones Economic Report and later as AP's vice president of newspaper membership.