Spoiler : Born in Montreal, Canada 10/17/1920; died 7/23/2004 of pneumonia following an illness of many years including a 1998 stroke and Alzheimer's disease at a hospice in Rockville, Maryland. Married to Corinne Adelaide Prevost (1946-1991 her death); Charlotte Hammond Page Dunn (1995-2004 his death). Abel served in Canada's Royal Air Force during WWII, stationed primarily in Scotland, serving as a radar officer, later as a combat correspondent. The day after his discharge in 1945, he joined the staff of the Montreal Gazzette, then worked for the North American Newspaper Alliance in Berlin, Germany, and the Los Angeles Times.

Spoiler : In 1949, Abel joined the New York Times as a national and foreign correspondent, reporting from Detroit, Washington, and New Dehli. He became the Times' bureau chief in Belgrade, sharing in the Pulitzer Prize for covering the 1956 Hungarian revolt. He became the bureau chief in New Delhi in 1958, covering the takeover by China.

Spoiler : In 1959, Abel became the Washington bureau chief for the Detroit News, until 1961 when he switched to broadcasting, working for NBC as their State Department correspondent, then as London bureau chief (1965-1967), and finally as diplomatic correspondent.

Spoiler : In 1970, he returned to academia when he became the dean of the graduate school of journalism at Columbia University in New York from 1970 to 1979, then moved to teach and serve as the communications department chairman for three years at Stanford University. He returned to the East Coast as director of the Stanford in Washington program in 1993, then retired in 1994.

Spoiler : Awards Mr Abel won include the Inter American Press Association awarding him their 1997 Grand Prize for Freedom. The Catholic University of America's Columbus School of Law presented him with it's 1984 First Amendment Defender Award. He won the Overseas Press Club Award in 1969 and 1970. Peabody Award for radio news in 1968.