Willard D Vandiver: A Missouri Legend from the Southeast Normal School to the Halls of Congress krcu.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from krcu.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
He asked me, ‘Do you think this Nicholas Alahverdian is still alive?’”
Alahverdian, a critic of the state’s child welfare program who had pushed lawmakers like Hull to support reforms, died of cancer five months earlier, according to his widow and a widely disseminated email from the “Alahverdian Family Office.”
His announced death, at 32, came just two months after Alahverdian informed reporters at various media outlets that he had late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma and had weeks to live. His life as a crusader for children, now about to be cut short, was news that needed reporting, he insisted to a Journal reporter and editor.