Barry Schweid, legendary AP correspondent, dies at 83

Among his career highlights, he traveled with Henry Kissinger on the secretary of state's "shuttle diplomacy" flights and covered the difficult negotiations at Camp David that President Jimmy Carter brokered to reach a historic peace treaty in 1977 between Egypt's Anwar Sadat and Israel's Menachem Begin.

Kathleen Carroll, AP's executive editor and senior vice president, worked with him in Washington and recalled that he "enjoyed bursting into the office after a trip, his arms filled with smoked salmon and other goodies purchased at airports where the planes had to refuel."

For his retirement party in May 2012, several secretaries of state sent messages of congratulations, including a video of Madeleine Albright singing a tribute.

During the time you covered Foggy Bottom when I was secretary of state I always respected your consummate reportage and even-handedness, traits that allow you to accurately record and analyze news in a balanced and thoughtful manner.

In an interview with the AP's oral history program in 2009, Schweid reflected on his career choice saying, "My ambition was to be a journalist and tell people what was going on, to tell the truth, to go to meet people, to understand what was going on in the world."

On overseas flights, Kissinger had the habit of repeatedly going back to the press section of his plane to chat with reporters on background, at least on the long trips.