A look at the career of Ben Bradlee

Ben Bradlee, former executive editor of "The Washington Post," sits on the porch of his Georgetown home on May 17, 2007, in Washington. His wife said Bradlee, suffering from Alzheimer's disease, was placed in hospice care at the couple's home in mid-September 2014. File photo by Joe Brier for USA TODAY

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President Obama awards Ben Bradlee the Presidential Medal of Freedom -- the nation’s highest civilian honor -- on Nov. 20, 2013, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Evan Vucci, AP

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Bradlee, left, and former "Washington Post" reporter Bob Woodward appear on the program "Remembering Watergate: A Conversation" at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, Calif., on April 18, 2011. File photo by Chris Carlson, AP

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Jonathan Salk, left, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt and Bradlee talk about the polio virus on April 11, 2005, at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington. File photo by Haraz Ghanbari, AP

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Bradlee congratulates Pulitzer Prize winner Dana Priest on April 7, 2008, in Washington. File photo by Jonathan Newton, The Washington Post, via AP

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Sally Quinn and her husband, Ben Bradlee, attend the funeral of "Washington Post" publisher and CEO Katharine Graham on July 23, 2001, at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. File photo by Bill O'Leary, AFP

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CNN chairman and CEO Tom Johnson, left, Katharine Graham, chairman of the Washington Post Co., and "Post" then-executive editor Ben Bradlee attend a Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press dinner on May 22, 2001, in New York. File photo by J. Scott Applewhite, AP

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Bradlee speaks at the University Theater at the University of Riverside on Jan. 7, 1997, in Riverside, Calif. File photo by Jimmy Dorantes, The Press-Enterprise, via AP

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"Washington Post" publisher Donald Graham and his mother, Katharine Graham, chairman of the Washington Post Co., meet with executive editor Ben Bradlee on May 18, 1991, in New York City. File photo by Dennis Cook, AP

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Katharine Graham and Bradlee leave U.S. District Court in Washington on June 21, 1971. The newspaper got permission from the court to print the secret Pentagon Papers on Vietnam. AP file photo

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Washington Post Vice President Benjamin C. Bradlee in his office at The Post in the Sept., 1995 photo. Bradlee, the retired executive editor of The Washington Post and one of the best-known journalists of his times, shares confiding moments in his memoirs, A Good Life, out next month. (AP Photo/Washington Post, Bill O'Leary) ORG XMIT: WX133 File photo by Bill O'Leary, The Washington Post, via AP

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