Soma Golden Behr, a longtime senior editor at The New York Times who was a centrifuge of story ideas — they came out of her in all directions — and whose journalistic passions were poverty, race and class, leading her to reporting that won Pulitzer Prizes, died Sunday in Manhattan. She was 84.
Her death, in the palliative care unit at Mount Sinai Hospital, came after her breast cancer spread to other organs, said her husband, William A. Behr.
Ms. Golden Behr, whose economics degree from Radcliffe led to a lifelong interest in issues of inequality, was instrumental in overseeing several major series for The Times that examined racial and class divisions. Each recruited teams of reporters and photographers for intensive assignments, sometimes lasting a year.
“How Race Is Lived in America,” edited by Gerald M. Boyd, who would become the paper’s first black executive editor, debunked the conventional wisdom that the country, in the early 21st century, had become “post-racial.” Its deep dives into an integrated church, the military, a slaughterhouse and other venues earned the paper the Pulitzer Prize for national journalism in 2001.
Another series, “Class in America,” was a 2005 analysis of how social class, often unspoken, produced glaring imbalances in society.
And before that, Golden Behr oversaw a 10-part series, “Children of the Shadows,” in 1993 that debunked stereotypes about inner-city youth. Journalist Isabel Wilkerson won a Pulitzer in the feature writing category for the series’ harrowing portrayal of a ten-year-old boy caring for four siblings.
Hired by The Times as an economics reporter in 1973 after 11 years at Business Week, Golden Behr was often one of the few women, or the only one, at the table. She was the first to head the national section, appointed in 1987, and after a promotion to deputy editor in 1993, she was only the second woman in the newsroom to appear on the masthead.
“At six feet tall, her presence could fill virtually any room and she rarely had to worry about men talking over her, giving her an advantage over many women at The Times,” Adam Nagourney wrote in “The Times,” a 2023 book about the newspaper’s contemporary history.
Nagourney described her as “cerebral, contemplative and explosive all at the same time” and quoted her in an interview: “I’m a word salad; I explode a lot.”
Jonathan Landman, a former deputy editor at The Times who Golden Behr plucked from the desk to edit national correspondents, said his style was markedly different from other desk chiefs.
“I wasn’t an editor who said we need x to write y,” she said. “He said, ‘We have to think about housing!’ What came next were interesting conversations and memos, and it got people thinking thematically in different ways. “It was something special.”
Although Golden Behr was a pioneer and mentor to other women at the newspaper, she did not consider herself an ideological feminist.
In 1991, during her tenure as national editor, the newspaper was heavily criticized for a profile of a young woman who accused William Kennedy Smith, nephew of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, of rape. Critics inside and outside the newsroom accused the newspaper of voyeurism and shaming the woman, citing a friend who said she had “a bit of a wild streak.”
In a contentious newsroom meeting, Golden Behr defended the article. “I’m surprised by the depth of the response,” she said, adding, “I can’t explain all the strange minds that read The New York Times.”
Soma Suzanne Golden was born on August 27, 1939, in Washington, DC, the eldest of three children of Dr. Benjamin Golden, a surgeon, and Edith (Seiden) Golden.
She graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Radcliffe College and a master’s degree from Columbia Journalism School. In 1974 she married Mr. Behr, a social worker and psychoanalyst. The couple lived in Manhattan and Hopewell Junction, New York.
Steven Greenhouse, a former business and labor reporter for The Times, recalled that when Golden Behr was hired from Business Week in 1973, where she was chief economics editor in Washington, it was considered a coup.
“To make the coup even more important at the time, Soma was a star who was female,” Greenhouse said. “She was very respected in the field of economics.”
Four years later, Golden Behr was appointed to the editorial board. She was the only woman to write exclusively editorials, often on women’s issues, gay rights and inequality.
“After a few years, she said something like, ‘I don’t know if I have any more opinions, I’ve said it all,’” Behr recalled. He went on to edit the Sunday business section for five years.
In addition to her husband, she is survived by her daughter, Ariel G. Behr, who works for a nonprofit that funds affordable housing; her son, Zachary G. Behr, an executive with the History Channel; four grandchildren; and a sister, Carol Golden.
Upon retiring from journalism in 2005, Ms. Golden Behr became director of the New York Times College Scholarship Program, which paid four years of expenses for students who had excelled academically despite difficult circumstances such as homelessness.
When funding was cut, Golden Behr and a partner, Melanie Rosen Brooks, created a similar stand-alone program, Scholarship Plus, in 2010, an extension of Golden Behr’s desire to address inequality. Donor-funded, Scholarship Plus supports 20 students from poor backgrounds annually, supplementing their college financial aid so they can avoid student loans, in an attempt to put its students on a level playing field with their wealthy peers.
Sometimes Golden Behr missed the camaraderie of the newsroom. She would invite journalists she had worked with over the years (all women) to her Upper West Side home. Until the pandemic put an end to meetings, up to 30 women attended, driving from as far away as Boston.
