David E. Rosenbaum, a longtime Washington editor and reporter for the New York Times died yesterday after being beaten and robbed Friday night near Fort Reno Park in Van Ness/Tenleytown. He was 63.

Bureau chief Philip Taubman wrote to the bureau last night: "I'm heartbroken to report that David Rosenbaum died today from the head injuries he absorbed on Friday night when he was mugged not far from his home. David suffered irreversible brain damage from the blow.

"The sudden, shocking nature of this news is almost too much to comprehend. David, who was 63, had just opened a new phase in his life, and only hours before the attack was telling colleagues in the bureau about the family vacation he was planning later this winter and how much he relished the freedom and opportunities that came with retirement.

"David was one of the most gifted, energetic and accomplished Washington correspondents of his generation. In a biographical sketch that David wrote shortly before his retirement, he said, 'To the extent I have a specialization, it is in the intersection of economics, politics and government policy.' That was a modest way of saying what everyone in Washington knew: No one covered policy and politics better than David Rosenbaum."

The paper's own obit summarized his many accomplishments, including a Polk Award. Through his career, he served "as chief Congressional correspondent, chief domestic policy correspondent, chief economics correspondent, assistant news editor and business editor in the Washington bureau of The Times."

Rosenbaum died last night at 7:10 p.m. at Howard University Hospital. Police said they have few details of the attack, except that Rosenbaum's wallet was taken, and his brother, Marcus--a senior editor at NPR--said the family understood had tried to use a credit card stolen in the attack.

> Here's the Post's original story on the attack.