Journalist, Author. He grew up in Greenfield, Iowa the fourth generation in a family of writers, his father was the editor of a local newspaper. He spent a year and a half in the military before attending Iowa State University, where he earned a degree in journalism. After working for his father's paper for a brief stint, he moved to a paper in Council Bluffs, Iowa and then joined a newspaper in Omaha, Nebraska. In 1957 Sidey joined the contributors of "LIFE" magazine and one year later he began his reports on presidents and the presidency that made him famous in "Time" as White House correspondant. In Sidey's 50 years of covering the presidency he witnessed some of the most important moments in history. He attended summits in Vienna, Austria with President John F. Kennedy and was in Dallas, Texas on the day of his assassination. Sidey traveled with Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon, and was aboard the plane on Nixon's famous visit to China. He reported the resignation of Nixon and the subsequent inauguration of Gerald Ford whom he traveled abroad with during his administration. He claimed that he had annoyed Jimmy Carter by suggesting that the president was "diminishing the presidency". Hugh Sidey was one of President Reagan's favorite reporters and the president discussed subjects with Sidey he usually would not speak about with other reporters. He continued to report through the administrations of George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Chosen as the White House Historical Association's president, he narrated a 2000 PBS documentary on the presidents. The was the author of several books, including biographies of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. His final book, "Portraits of the Presidents" gave Americans a rarely seen personal look into the United States Presidents. He died on a traditional November trip to France. An Iowa newspaper reported that his remains were cremated.