Former Daily News reporter and President of the New York Association of Black Journalists Michael J. Feeney died at the age of 32 on Sunday, January 31 after complications with a staph infection in his kidneys, according to the New York Daily News.
Feeney was ready to start his dream job as an entertainment reporter at CNN.com in Atlanta when he got sick. He was in Holy Name Medical Center in New Jersey since Tuesday, according to reports. He went into cardiac arrest at around 1:15 p.m.
Many remember Feeney’s work as a journalist. He originally started at The News in 2009 and then earned the title of Emerging Journalist of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists. Within a year he was elected president of the New York chapter.
Feeney is survived by his mother, sister, a twin brother, a niece and a nephew. Funeral arrangements are being made.
“Mike did everything to help everyone,” his mother, Reba Willis, said in a Daily News article. “He did whatever he could with any person who he came across who wanted to know anything about journalism and about life.”
