Joseph Frazier

Joseph Frazier was raised in Eugene, Ore. and graduated from the University of Oregon in 1970 after a hitch in Vietnam with the U.S. Marine Corps. He joined The Associated Press in Portland in 1972 and was assigned to Mexico City and Central America in 1979 with eventual bases in Mexico, Costa Rica and El Salvador. In 1979 he covered the Sandinista Revolution that toppled Nicaraguan strongman Anastasio Somoza and from 1979-1986 covered the fast-growing revolution in nearby El Salvador, which lasted 12 years, claimed 75,000 lives and was the last serious battle in the Cold War. Other coverage included invasions of Haiti and Panama, Mexico's Zapatista uprising in 1994 and random coups, earthquakes and hurricanes until returning to the United States in 1997. He retired from the AP in 2009 after 37 years and lives with his wife Carla in Portland. His first wife, Linda, was killed in Nicaragua in 1984 during the U.S.-backed Contra war.