Longtime AP Rome bureau chief Victor Simpson, who covered 5 popes, dies at 84

ROME (AP) — Victor L. Simpson, the longtime Rome bureau chief for The Associated Press whose four decades as a foreign correspondent spanned five popes, wars and violence that touched him personally, has died. He was 84.

Simpson died of cancer Sunday at his home in Rome, his children said Monday.

During a 46-year AP career, Simpson covered many of the defining stories of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, from the 1967 Newark, New Jersey, race riots and war in the Middle East to the papacy of Pope John Paul II, whom he accompanied on dozens of trips.

A native New Yorker, Simpson joined the AP in Newark in 1967, where he wrote an award-winning series on organized crime. He transferred to the General Desk in 1968, editing top domestic stories, and then to the Foreign Desk in 1970.

He was assigned to Rome as news editor in 1972, where he promptly met his future wife, Daniela Petroff, who became a distinguished AP fashion and Vatican correspondent. She died in February at age 80.

He became Rome bureau chief in 2005. Simpson previously worked for the Hackensack (New Jersey) Record.

“Victor had an extraordinary life and career, and built a lasting legacy at the AP," said AP Executive Editor Julie Pace. "Years after his retirement, he still comes up regularly in stories and conversations in AP bureaus around the world — a testament to the impact he had on generations of AP journalists. I know that legacy will endure for many years to come.”

Simpson loved to regale listeners about his journalistic feats, which included a private dinner conversation on the papal plane with John Paul and an interview with Svetlana Alliluyeva, the daughter of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. He secured the scoop by showing up at Alliluyeva's door in Princeton, New Jersey, where she lived after defecting from the USSR.

“He put a lasting mark on AP, from his days as a feisty young staffer in our Newark bureau, through years as an energetic mainstay on our central news desk in New York, and then during a storied career in Rome,” said retired AP President and CEO Louis D. Boccardi, who called him “one of a kind.”

Simpson’s life was marked by two devastating personal tragedies: the shooting death of his father during a robbery in 1964, and the killing of his 11-year-old daughter, Natasha, by Palestinian militants who attacked Rome’s airport on Dec. 27, 1985.

Simpson was preparing to fly to the United States with his family when the militants stormed the airport, throwing grenades and firing automatic weapons. Natasha was among more than a dozen people killed. Simpson and the couple's 9-year-old son, Michael, were both wounded.

Natasha’s killing “was a tragedy that affected us all deeply,” Boccardi recalled.

Two years later, Simpson and Petroff welcomed another daughter, Debbie. The pope called the family to congratulate them.

In announcing his death, his children, Michael and Debbie, said the pain he carried over Natasha’s killing “has finally evaporated, leaving only love behind.”

When Simpson was 22, his father, Leonard P. Simpson, a well-known New York lawyer, was shot and killed in the elevator of the family's apartment building. He was 63.

“The murder was considered yet more proof of New York’s degradation,” Simpson wrote in his 2024 memoir “Life of a Reporter.”

He described how an “exuberant” Jimmy Breslin interviewed the family for a story about the difficulties of the middle class in the crime-ridden era. The experience taught him an important lesson in journalism about being considerate and sensitive with the victims of tragedy.

Simpson’s optimism and devotion to family and work sustained him through the tragedies.

He was born May 11, 1942, and raised in a Jewish family. He said that while religion wasn’t a centerpiece, “tolerance was considered a precious value.” He graduated from Hobart College in 1963 and briefly served in the U.S. Army.

Simpson kept his extended family close, making overseas trips for weddings and bar and bat mitzvahs. “It meant a huge amount to me,” said his niece, Catherine Simpson Bueker.

Simpson was the unofficial dean of the Rome press corps and a first stop for new correspondents. Decades covering the Holy See made him one of the longest-serving Vatican correspondents of his generation, including 92 trips with John Paul and Pope Benedict XVI.

It was on one of those flights in 1986 that Simpson was invited to dine with John Paul on the final leg following a two-week tour of Asia and the Pacific.

Simpson, in a rumpled safari jacket detested by his fashion-writer wife, apologized to the pontiff for wearing “my working clothes.” The pope put him at ease, gripping his white robes and saying, “These are my working clothes.”

One of his biggest exclusives came on a 1988 flight to Uruguay when he asked John Paul about the Solidarity strikes challenging the communist government in his native Poland. John Paul responded with full papal support for the strikes.

“Here we are touching the heart of the problem,” the pope said. “It is not easy to bring democracy to a system that is by definition dictatorial and totalitarian.”

The remarks made front pages around the world and were later viewed as a landmark in the pope’s role in communism’s collapse in Eastern Europe.

Philip Pullella, longtime Vatican reporter for United Press International and then Reuters, said Simpson’s Jewish background allowed him to cover the Vatican with some distance without falling into “false awe” of the institutional pomp.

“He was the gold standard. I don’t think he was ever intimidated by the Vatican. He saw it as an institution that needed to be covered in an impartial way,” Pullella said.

Simpson’s assignments included the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s historic 1977 visit to Israel, and the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. His early Rome years focused heavily on domestic and international violence by militants, famous kidnappings and enduring mysteries like the 1980 Ustica air disaster that killed 81 people.

He loved tennis and reported from the Italian Open for years and once from Wimbledon.

Simpson had planned to retire on Feb. 28, 2013, but Benedict stunned the world by announcing he would become the first pope in nearly 600 years to resign, effective the same date as Simpson’s departure.

Simpson always wondered if he had given the idea of retirement to the German pope. He had had a brief private conversation with Benedict while returning from Lebanon in September 2012 on what was to be Simpson's last papal flight before retirement.

“When I told him that I had covered the Vatican for more than 30 years, he looked surprised. He sounded wistful as he said my retirement 'is much deserved,'” Simpson recalled in a tribute after Benedict died.

Simpson stayed to cover one final papal transition, the 2013 conclave that elected Pope Francis.

——

AP writers Nicole Winfield and Andrew Dampf contributed.

FILE - Associated Press correspondent Victor Simpson, left, interviews Pope John Paul II aboard the airplane in flight from Rome to Warsaw, June 2, 1979. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Italian Premier Romano Prodi, left, gestures as he is interviewed by Associated Press Rome Bureau Chief Victor Simpson at Chigi palace, in Rome, Wednesday, July 26, 2006. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis, File)

FILE - Former Associated Press Rome Bureau Chief Victor Simpson speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the Vatican on April 29, 2021. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis, File)

FILE - Rome Bureau Chief Victor Simpson, left, shakes hands with Pope Benedict XVI during the flight from Beirut to Rome, Sept. 16, 2012. (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, File)

FILE - Former Associated Press Rome Bureau Chief Victor Simpson poses for a portrait after an interview with The Associated Press at the Vatican on April 29, 2021. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis, File)

This summer, a 28-year-old digital content marketer packed up his suitcases and duct-taped boxes and fled Russia, leaving behind his family and friends and not knowing when he'll be able to return.

"It is very sad to leave Russia,” he said in the southern city of Krasnodar before heading for the border with Georgia.

He blamed “the political situation” in Russia and complications over authorities restricting internet access as his reasons for leaving. Otherwise, “I never would have left for more than several months,” he told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.

He is one of a number of people who either left or are contemplating a move amid recent Ukrainian drone attacks inside Russia and persistent rumors of a coming mobilization of troops for the 4 1/2-year-old war.

The attacks this summer caused an unprecedented fuel crisis and dealt crippling blows to the booming e-commerce sector. Since last year, the government has cited the attacks to justify harsh restrictions on connecting to the internet.

The exodus is nowhere near as large as in 2022, when hundreds of thousands fled in the first year of the full-scale invasion. Still, a group that helps citizens who flee abroad said it received nearly eight times more queries last month than it had in May.

“It doesn’t mean that there is a huge number of people right now at the borders,” said Anastasia Burakova, the founder of Kovcheg, which means “ark” in Russian. “But we’re seeing that people are preparing to emigrate, we’re seeing that people are looking into what options are there.”

The current numbers are hard to gauge. Unlike 2022, when droves of men fled a partial call-up for the military, there are no lines at border crossings or shortages of plane tickets to visa-free destinations like Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Turkey at the moment.

At the same time, AP found numerous social media videos from all over Russia of people saying they had decided to leave, citing war-related reasons. Others were worried about the declining economy, an uncertain future and shrinking freedoms.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other officials in Kyiv have said Russia is planning another mobilization after the State Duma election that concludes Sunday — claims the Kremlin has repeatedly and vehemently rejected.

Yan Slovizki, a human rights activist and emergency assistance coordinator for Kovcheg, described “a panicked wave” of emigration since mid-July linked to mobilization fears, the fuel crisis and internet restrictions.

A Moscow-based diplomat told AP about “a palpable rise in public anxiety this summer,” and pointed to “anecdotal evidence of higher than usual numbers of Russians appearing in neighboring Georgia and Armenia, possibly fearing another mobilization after the Duma elections.” The diplomat was not authorized to comment publicly and thus spoke on condition of anonymity.

Alen Simonyan, secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, told independent Russian TV channel Dozhd last month that his country “will not interfere in any way, and if necessary, will help” Russians who are moving there to avoid being drafted.

That drew a sharp rebuke from the Russian Foreign Ministry, which called Simonyan’s remark “provocative.”

Russian lawmaker Viktor Sobolev told the RTVI channel that the country doesn’t need people who “don’t love their Motherland so much that they leave because of rumors,” adding: "Let them leave.”

The digital content marketer, who describes himself as a pacifist, says this was his second attempt at emigrating.

He left Russia in 2022 to avoid the partial call-up of 300,000 new troops, an announcement by President Vladimir Putin that shocked the nation.

He said he isn’t technically eligible for military service in peacetime due to a hip ailment, but felt it was safer to leave because he didn’t know what to expect from authorities.

Some officials in 2022 said such men could legally be drafted in a mobilization, as did some rights groups helping conscripts. Others said martial law had to be declared for it to be legal. Russia has not formally declared war on Ukraine, and the Kremlin only imposed martial law in the four Ukrainian regions it illegally annexed in 2022 but doesn't fully control.

The digital content marketer returned to his hometown of Ulyanovsk in 2025 and worked remotely for clients in other countries. But Russia’s unrelenting clampdown on thousands of internet platforms, sites and services made it harder for him to do his job, he said, having to switch virtual private network servers to find one allowing him to get around the restrictions.

Another factor was the rumored new mobilization. “You never know what will happen tomorrow,” he said from an apartment in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, where he settled.

A 23-year-old Muscovite who left Russia last month also cited the persistent mobilization rumors and fears that her husband might end up in the military.

The woman, who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity because of security concerns, said her father narrowly escaped being drafted in 2022 by fleeing the country. This year, her husband learned he would no longer have a deferment from military service after getting his master’s degree.

“A person can figure anything out, but we were really afraid that (my husband) could end up in the army, because at this point it is a one-way ticket,” she said.

Ivan Nazarov, a new university graduate who moved to the Armenian capital of Yerevan, echoed her sentiment.

He said he was aware of reports of conscripts in mandatory service who are not supposed to be deployed to Ukraine being forced to sign contracts that send them to the battlefield.

“For me, it is a question of survival,” Nazarov added, speaking at a gathering organized by Kovcheg in Yerevan for new immigrants.

Queer activist Daniil Neonov left Russia this summer after a series of detentions and a 10-day jail term on charges of displaying extremist symbols — a photo featuring a T-shirt with a rainbow-colored print on it he posted on social media.

Russian authorities have outlawed what they call “the international LGBT movement” as extremist, leading sometimes to misdemeanor charges for carrying items with a rainbow on them.

Neonov told AP in Yerevan that he feared a criminal case would be brought against him.

He said he knows other people who left Russia after being detained for gathering outside the Supreme Court last month to support the opposition Yabloko party when the court struck it from the parliamentary election ballot. Yabloko was the only party on the ballot that openly opposed the war.

“The police came to them and filed reports. I know several people who, after they were held in detention, also left. I mean, I’m not the only one,” Neonov said.

A 35-year-old Russian told AP he was preparing for leaving the country because he doesn't want to live in a land without free speech, where the economy is on a downward spiral and where schoolchildren have to listen to propaganda touting war, normalizing violence and promoting isolation from the rest of the world.

The man, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for safety reasons, said he had been thinking about leaving Russia for over a decade but still had hope that “everything would work out.”

Now, he said, Russians “live in a huge digital jail. You can’t say anything, you can’t do anything. You have absolutely no rights."

Sophiko Megrelidze in Tbilisi, Georgia, and Ani Khachatryan in Yerevan, Armenia, contributed.

——

This version changes the transliteration of the last name for Yan Slovitsky, the emergency assistance coordinator for Kovcheg.

A 28-year-old digital content marketer who recently moved out of Russia rides a subway car in Tbilisi, Georgia, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. He asked not to be identified because of security concerns. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)

A 28-year-old digital content marketer who recently moved out of Russia is seen in Tbilisi, Georgia, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026. He asked not to be identified because of security concerns. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)

A 28-year-old digital content marketer who recently moved out of Russia takes photos in the Old Town in Tbilisi, Georgia, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026. He asked not to be identified because of security concerns. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)

A 28-year-old digital content marketer who recently moved out of Russia enters the subway in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. He asked not to be identified because of security concerns. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)

A 28-year-old digital content marketer who decided to leave Russia stands near his packed belongings at the railway station in Krasnodar, Russia, on Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026. He asked not to be identified because of security concerns. (AP Photo)