Alex L. Taylor III

Alex L. Taylor III

LAKEVILLE — Alex L. Taylor III, a longtime reporter with Time and Fortune magazine who covered the auto industry with understated and unsurpassed flair for nearly three decades, died on Feb. 8, 2024, in Lakeville, where he lived. The cause was complications from Parkinson’s disease.

Born on Jan. 1, 1945, Alex grew up in Old Greenwich, the oldest of five siblings.

His father, Alex L. Taylor II, owned the Alex Taylor & Co. sporting goods store in Midtown Manhattan, and his mother, Cherry (Grafton), was a teacher.

A graduate of Kent School, he earned a bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College and a master’s in journalism from the University of Missouri.

He began his journalism career at a radio station in Indiana. He went on to a series of reporting stints at WZZM-TV in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and The Detroit Free Press. As a newsman for Time and Fortune magazine, Alex was regarded as a smart, dogged reporter with meticulous storytelling skills and one of the most knowledgeable journalists covering the auto industry. He won numerous awards for his writing, including three first prizes from the Detroit Press Club Foundation and “Journalist of the Year” from the Washington Automotive Press Association. A former adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, in 2000, he was selected one of 100 Notable Business Journalists of the 20th Century.

He was a member of the International Motor Press Association and was on the jury for the North America Car of the Year Awards. Alex was the author of “Sixty to Zero: An Inside Look at the Collapse of General Motors – and the Detroit Auto Industry.” Drawing on more than thirty years of experience and insight as an automotive industry reporter, the book was released to positive reviews in 2010.

Beyond his work, Alex is remembered for his love of his family and friends, tennis, nonfiction books, and Brooks Brothers. He was admired for his wit and all-around generosity, as well as his good cheer and courage living with Parkinson’s.

He is survived by his wife of 41 years, Mary; son, Alex, daughter, Madeleine; sisters Holly and Faith along with nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his parents and his brothers, John and David.

Please consider donating in Alex’s honor to The Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s research.

A memorial service will be held on June 15 at the Congregational Church of Salisbury.

The Kenny Funeral Home has care of arrangements.

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