Author and Pulitzer Prize-winning political columnist David S. Broder has passed away. He was 81-years-old.

Broder (pictured, via) has written and co-written a number of books, including: Democracy Derailed: Initiative Campaigns and the Power of Money and Behind the Front Page: A Candid Look at How the News is Made, The Party’s Over: The Failure of Politics in America. He had written for The Washington Post since 1966.

President Barack Obama offered this tribute to the late writer: “Like so many here in Washington and across the country, Michelle and I were deeply saddened to hear about the passing of a true giant of journalism, David Broder. David filed his first story from our nation’s capital before starting as a junior political writer on the 1960 presidential election. In the decades that followed, he built a well-deserved reputation as the most respected and incisive political commentator of his generation – winning a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of Watergate and earning the affectionate title of Dean of the Washington press corps.”