Gene Kramer | AP correspondent, 83

Gene Kramer, 83, who covered many of the Cold War's hot spots during almost half a century with the Associated Press, died Wednesday. He had been in deteriorating health.

During his long career, Mr. Kramer faced interrogation in a Polish police station, dodged incoming Chinese shells on the disputed island of Quemoy, and braved the turbulent streets of Seoul when a student-led revolt ended Syngman Rhee's 12 years as South Korea's first president.

He immersed himself in his assignments and spoke passably at least three languages besides English: Japanese, German, and Polish.

Mr. Kramer's colleagues considered him a consummate newsman, described by Tyler Marshall, the Los Angeles Times' correspondent in New Delhi during Mr. Kramer's seven-year tenure there, as "the quintessential AP monk, who had few interests that didn't connect with the news business."

Mr. Kramer was born in Nebraska in 1927 and moved as a child to Montana. After attending classes at the University of Montana, he spent two years in the Navy after World War II, then graduated from the University of California, Berkeley. He joined the AP's San Francisco bureau in 1950. - AP