Ed Vogel, top Nevada newspaper reporter for 4 decades, dies

MINDEN — Edison “Ed” Vogel, whose career as a top Nevada newspaper reporter spanned four decades, died Sunday at his Minden home. He was 66.

Vogel received cancer treatment for months and suffered a stroke brought on by the disease on Feb. 11, family members said.

He retired last year as state capitol bureau chief for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, ending a 37-year career with Nevada’s largest newspaper.

Vogel, a member of the Nevada Newspaper Hall of Fame, covered every session of the Nevada Legislature from 1985 until his retirement. Between sessions, he covered state government and elections.

“Ed Vogel spent a long and luminous career as a reporter covering politics and government in (Nevada),” Gov. Brian Sandoval wrote in a Twitter post. “He leaves a lasting legacy and will be dearly missed.”

His newspaper colleagues agreed, saying the University of Michigan graduate was adept at asking tough questions of the governor and others.

Vogel was “a great journalist and was among the very best statehouse reporters Nevada has ever produced. We’ll not see another like Ed,” Review-Journal Editor Michael Hengel said.

But Vogel was as well known for his portrayals of Nevada’s quirky characters as he was for holding Nevada’s politicians accountable.

His subjects included the neon Vegas Vic cowboy in downtown Las Vegas; Ed “The Waver” Carlson, who greeted motorists while on foot across the country; another man who raised lobsters in the middle of the Nevada desert; and the cannon left behind in Nevada by an expedition led by 19th century explorer John Fremont.

“Ed was a great reporter because he loved talking to people and learning about their lives,” said reporter Sean Whaley, who worked with Vogel for years in the Review-Journal Capitol Bureau. “He had a genuine interest in what they had to say.”

Nevada Press Association chief Barry Smith said Vogel “embodied the spirit of Nevada journalism” and even looked a little like Mark Twain, who cut his teeth on journalism at the Territorial Enterprise in Virginia City in the 1860s.

“I wonder if people even realize how much they know about Nevada, state government and politics has come from reading Ed’s reporting over the past 30 years,” he said.

Survivors include his wife of 30 years, Carol; two daughters; a son; four grandchildren; and four siblings.

Funeral arrangements were pending.