W.Va. Network Journalist Ed Rabel Has Died

Ed Rabel was born in Kanawha County and grew up in St. Albans before a career in journalism took him to war zones and locations around the world. 

Rabel graduated from St. Albans High School in 1957 and then Morris Harvey College in 1963. He worked in local radio before becoming news director of WCHS-TV in Charleston.

He joined CBS News in 1966. He was the last reporter to interview the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. the day before he was assassinated in 1968 and volunteered to cover Vietnam in 1969. He also published the memoir “Ed Rabel Reports: Lies, Wars and Other Misadventures.”

Rabel’s attorney Timothy Koontz confirmed Rabel died on Dec. 3. He was 86 years old. Koontz said Rabel was someone who didn’t suffer fools gladly, but he spoke in the highest terms of what he called Rabel’s second career — teaching. 

After retiring from broadcasting as a national correspondent with NBC News, he returned home to Alum Creek. He was an adjunct professor of journalism at the Edward R. Murrow College of Communications at Washington State University. 

In 2014, he ran as an independent for Congress, but lost in the general election. 

Rabel was a regular columnist for the Charleston Gazette-Mail, occasionally stirring up local reactions, like when he declared there was no reason to watch local television news. 

Since 2019, he has worked as a substitute teacher in West Virginia and in Virginia, where he died.