Jeffrey Zaslow, columnist, author and co-author of such books as The Last Lecture, Captain "Sully" Sullenberger's autobiography and Gabrielle Giffords's recent book, died on Friday in a car accident in northern Michigan. He was 53.
The night before his death, Zaslow had done an event at McLean and Eakin Booksellers in Petoskey for his latest book, The Magic Room: A Story About the Love We Wish for Our Daughters, about a bridal shop in Fowler, Mich. Zaslow is survived by his wife, Sherry Margolis, a news anchor for a Detroit TV station, and three daughters.
Gotham Books, one of his publishers, called Zaslow's death "a shock and a tragedy to all of us at Gotham and Penguin and to his beloved readers. Jeff was a truly good man, husband and father and that quality came through in his books. As a reporter he had an eye for the subtle, human details of
 people that captured them. He was a born storyteller. We were honored to work with him and have him as a friend. We shall miss him."
The Wall Street Journal, where Zaslow wrote a regular column called "Moving On," offered a long tribute. Editor Robert Thomson said: "Jeff's writing, for the Journal and in his books, has been a source of inspiration for many people around the world and his journalistic life has been a source of inspiration for all journalists."
The Journal noted that in his columns, Zaslow's "subjects ranged from the anguish of losing a car in the Disney World parking lot, to the power of fathers' lunchbox letters to their daughters, to the distinctive pain of watching a beloved childhood stadium go under the wrecking ball. More recently, he became one of America's best-selling nonfiction writers."
Zaslow's Journal column became the basis for some of those bestsellers. In an extensive obituary, the New York Times recounted that The Last Lecture, written with Randy Pausch, "began as a hunch. Professor Pausch had announced that he was dying of an ailment similar to Lou Gehrig's disease and was planning to sum things up in a last lecture for his students at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in September 2007. Thinking it might make for a good column for the Journal, Mr. Zaslow, a Carnegie Mellon alumnus, drove from his base in Detroit to hear what he would say." The lecture was a hit, and Zaslow and Pausch worked together on the book based on it.
Among Zaslow's other books were Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope, written with Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly; Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters, with Chesley B. Sullenberger; The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and a Forty-Year Friendship; Talk of Fame; Take It from Us; and Tell Me All About It.
