Andrew Schneider had big impact on Libby

Author Andrew Schneider, who died Friday at age 74, was best known for writing about the asbestos crisis in Libby.

Schneider, who had recently moved to Missoula, died of heart failure in Salt Lake City, where he was being treated for pulmonary disease.

Schneider was remembered by many of his colleagues Saturday as a relentless, inspiring reporter who built indelible relationships with people from all walks of life — colleagues, news sources, and the ordinary people on whose behalf he worked.

Schneider won two Pulitzer Prizes while working at the Pittsburgh Press — one for specialized reporting in 1986 and another for Public Service in 1987.

The public service Pulitzer was for “Danger in the Cockpit,” co-written with Matthew Brelis and photographed by Vincent Musi, a story revealing dangerous gaps in airline safety, including the fact that pilots with alcohol and drug issues were not prevented from flying. The 1986 winner, written with reporter Mary Pat Flaherty, detailed violations and failures in the organ transplantation system in U.S. medicine.

Schneider’s wife, the Kathy Best, the editor of The Missoulian and a former editor of The Seattle Times. The couple moved to Missoula last year when she took the job at the Missoulian. Since his arrival in Montana, Schneider had been working part-time as a public health reporter for Lee Montana Newspapers.

Flaherty, now with the Washington Post, said Saturday, “The man never had anything but a big, big plan when it came to a story he was chasing and if you were part of the hunt he raised your game, too.”

Later, working for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, he wrote a series of stories in 1999 about the asbestos contamination of Libby, Montana, which ended up making global headlines and resulted in an EPA Superfund cleanup that continues today, nearly two decades later. [The Daily Inter Lake had embarked on its own investigation about the Libby crisis at the same time, and ended up publishing a competing series of stories virtually simultaneously, beating Schneider’s reporting by only one day.]

He co-wrote the book “An Air That Kills: How the Asbestos Poisoning of Libby, Montana Uncovered a National Scandal,” published by Putnam in 2004, and then wrote an updated version, “An Air that Still Kills,” which was honored last year as iBook of the Year by iBA.

More than 400 people have died and a thousand more are sick in Libby due to asbestos-related disease.

The community of scientists and public-health advocates who have worked on asbestos issues for years remembered Schneider Saturday.

“In the 45 years I’ve worked on asbestos and other public-health issues, I’ve worked with a lot of journalists,” said public health scientist Barry Castleman. “Andy Schneider was by far the best.”

“For decades, he passionately fought for truth and justice for asbestos victims of the past, present and future,” said Linda Reinstein, president of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization.

“Andy was a force of nature,” said investigative reporter Bill Lambrecht.

“He was the fiercest antagonist, the truest advocate, the most loyal friend, the most generous host and cook. He would hear none of it when someone in his business bemoaned having little good to write about.

“He would say, ‘So many stories, so little time.’”

Schneider is survived by his wife, Kathy Best; two children, Kelly Schneider of Seattle, and Patrick Schneider of Charlotte, N.C.; his former wife Carol Schneider of Charlotte; and two grandchildren. A memorial service is being planned.

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