David Bird (journalist)

David Christopher Bird (c. 1959–2014) was an American journalist and longtime reporter at The Wall Street Journal reporter whose work "was instrumental in the expansion of energy markets reporting in the 1990s," leading the Journal's coverage of OPEC and energy markets and building a team regarded as among the best in business." Bird served as the deputy managing editor of the Dow Jones Energy Service. He went missing in 2014 and the following year was found dead near his New Jersey home. Early life and education: Bird was born in Trenton, New Jersey, and was the youngest of six children. He graduated from Rider College. Career: Bird worked at the News-Press of Fort Meyers, Florida before joining Dow Jones Newswires, and subsequently transferring to Dow Jones's London office. Five years into his career, Bird extensively traveled Europe and the Middle East, returning to the U.S. in 1988. Bird worked for Dow Jones & Company (the publisher of the Wall Street Journal), for more than twenty years, rising to become deputy managing editor of the Dow Jones Energy Service. He was a key reporter on energy markets. Disappearance and death: Bird, age 55, went for a walk on Saturday, January 11, 2014, from his home in the Millington section of Long Hill Township, New Jersey, but never returned. Bird has told his wife that he planned to go for a brief walk around nearby wooded trails. An extensive fourteen-month search for Bird failed to produce results. Dow Jones offered a $10,000 reward for information on Bird's whereabouts, and colleagues and others raised $35,000 in contributions for Bird's family. Dow Jones also kept paying Bird's salary through the end of July 2014, changing his status to unpaid leave of absence after that point. After Bird was taken off the payroll, the Independent Association of Publishers' Employees 1096, the trade union representing Journal reporters, donated $10,000 to the family and matched members' contributions up to another $10,000. In March 2015, Bird's body was recovered after two canoeists found Bird's red jacket in the Passaic River; authorities found the body about 20 feet off the shoreline. The remains were identified through dental records. A subsequent investigation determined that the cause of death was accidental drowning. It is possible that Bird "slipped and fell into the water while hurrying home ahead of an incoming storm." Personal life: Bird met Nancy Fleming around 1988, and they wed in 1991. The couple had two children, a son born in 1998 and a daughter born in 2001. Bird contracted a rare form of hepatitis about nine years before his disappearance and death and received a lifesaving liver transplant in 2004, which Bird discussed on his blog and which was reported in local newspapers. Bird was an advocate for organ donation. Bird was described in his Wall Street Journal obituary as "an avid hiker, lover of reggae music, a Boston Red Sox fan, cyclist, camper, marathoner and a scout-troop leader" who had traveled to more than 35 countries.