Andy Kohut Loses Fight Against Cancer

Georgetowner Andrew Kohut, co-founder and first president of the organization that would become the Pew Research Center — arguably the most accurate and unbiased polling company — died Sept. 8 following a long battle with leukemia. He was 73.

Known by his peers as uncommonly nonpartisan in the methods he used to accurately poll the public, he never belittled the opinions of his subjects. Not content with “liberal,” “conservative” and “independent,” he developed an evolving categorical system of up to 12 types of voters, based in part on how they acquire the information that informs their opinions, which he called “political typography.”

Donations in Kohut’s memory should be directed (with a notation specifying that they are made in his memory) to Friends of Rose Park, 1404 27th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20007.