Author of 'An Air That Kills' dies at 74

Andrew Schneider, 74, acclaimed investigative reporter and public-health journalist, died Friday.

Schneider is most known to Libby locals as the author of “An Air That Kills: How the Asbestos Poisoning of Libby, Montana Uncovered a National Scandal,” published by Putnam in 2004.

Schneider, who twice won two Pulitzer Prizes in journalism, died of heart failure in Salt Lake City, where he was being treated for pulmonary disease.

He was working for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer when he broke the story of the asbestos contamination of Libby, which ended up making global headlines and resulted in an EPA Superfund cleanup.

Andrew Jay Schneider was born Nov. 13, 1942 in the Bronx, but spent much of his childhood in Miami. His father, Jack, was a chef and maitre d’ at the famed Fontainebleu Hotel in Miami Beach and his mother, Fran, was a waitress there -- a background that helped produce Schneider’s formidable culinary skills.