Fred S. Hoffman, a legendary Associated Press reporter and former Pentagon spokesman, died of melanoma at home in Alexandria, VA, He was 100 years old. The following appeared on Legacy.com.

An irascible, straight-shooting soul, Fred always marveled at his lifelong good luck and left at peace, with no regrets.

With unerring good judgment and smart choices, Fred set his standards high and met them. He made his own path and hewed to it, a man supremely comfortable in his own skin.

“Fred was a pillar,” said Lou Boccardi, former AP president and CEO.

Fred began his nearly 40-year news career as a Boston radio reporter covering boxing matches from the front row, dodging flying droplets of blood.

Thirty-six of those years were as an AP reporter, where he chronicled seven administrations; Congress, the Vietnam War from start to end; the Cuban Missile Crisis from Guantanamo; the Mercury 7 space flights from Cape Canaveral; a catastrophic Alaska earthquake and a snowy plane crash into DC’s 14th St. bridge.

To this day, he is considered one of the toughest, most enterprising, ethical and tireless reporters to have ever covered the Pentagon, his beat for nearly 24 years.

PHOTO: Legacy.com