Andrew Steven Rothman, an award-winning television producer with a house in Springs, died at home in New York City on March 13 “after a brave battle with cancer,” wrote his wife, Amanda Ingersoll-Rothman. He was 62.
Mr. Rothman was born in New York City during John F. Kennedy’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 1961, to Frank Rothman and the former Sheila Handshoe.
The family lived first on Manhattan’s Upper West Side before moving to Westport, Conn., where he graduated from Staples High School. Mr. Rothman “spent his childhood and teen years accumulating an encyclopedic wealth of sports knowledge devouring the New York Times sports page while watching TV,” his wife said. He worked at the student radio station and later as the sports information director at the University of Chicago, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and graduated with honors.
He “turned his insatiable curiosity and passion for writing and journalism into a 40-year career at CBS News and CNBC,” Ms. Ingersoll-Rothman wrote. He earned Emmy and Gracie Awards producing “The CBS Early Show,” where he covered a wide range of sports and news, including the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Hurricane Katrina, 10 Super Bowls, and three Olympics. He interviewed the sports legends Joe DiMaggio, Tom Brady, and Tiger Woods, among many others.
“At CNBC he poured his creative soul into countless entrepreneur features,” including “How I Made My Millions,” “Nightly Business Report,” which was produced by CNBC for PBS, and daily market news for “The Exchange” and “Power Lunch.”
“What set Andy above and apart — in a fast-paced, competitive, and at times cutthroat industry — was his consistent kindness, purity of heart, and devotion to doing the right thing,” his wife wrote. “He just couldn’t stomach anything less. He was one of the good guys. He never took a sick day. He worked the overnights without coffee! His emails were luxuriously long. His laugh was hearty and his friends were fans. He had a permanent seat at the bar at Pastis, where his beloved steak sandwich was a weekly ritual for years. On the weekends, he cherished his burger and beer at Rowdy Hall in East Hampton with Joe at the bar.”
Mr. Rothman “loved to travel, from epic ski trips out West with his friends to work trips toasting Ferrari’s 60th anniversary” in Tuscany. He was a beach bum and “never happier than when he was driving his 1968 convertible Mustang down Gerard Drive in Springs or Atlantic Avenue in Amagansett,” his wife wrote. They enjoyed entertaining friends and family at home and were known to crash their neighbors’ parties across the street in Springs, where they were married on Aug. 7, 2010.
Mr. Rothman “was a long-suffering Jets and Mets fan and a Knicks season-ticket holder for 25 years,” his wife said. “He was a ringer on the softball field in Central Park and a decades-long member of the West Side Y, where for many years he swam and played basketball religiously. In recent years he took up spinning, and after a heart ablation in 2007 he challenged himself to running and completed seven half-marathons in one year.”
“But no sporting event brought Andy more joy than March Madness,” his wife wrote. “For decades he camped out at a rotating number of bars and held court from day one of the Big Dance. The last several years Andy ran his own tournament. He relished writing the annual welcome email with his overview and predictions and couldn’t wait to wake up every morning to email everyone in the pool with updates and highlights. This year, after battling his illness for nine long months, his family and friends all nodded and smiled as they watched him hold on through Selection Sunday.”
Mr. Rothman was raised in the humanist Jewish faith, but “was not religious in the traditional sense,” Ms. Ingersoll-Rothman said. He was guided by his big heart and by his honesty and integrity. “His only true spiritual adviser was The Boss,” according to his wife. “Andy attended more than 35 Bruce Springsteen concerts over the years, including one in Milan in 2017” at which he proclaimed to his wife,
“ ‘Some people go to church . . . but this, this is my church.’ “ After his cancer treatments in July, he bought tickets to two more Springsteen concerts, at Madison Square Garden on April 1 and in Monza, Italy, on July 25. “He will surely be there in spirit, riding that Thunder Road to the promised land.”
Along with his wife, he is survived by a brother, Douglas Robertson, and his beloved wheaten terrier, Willoughby.
A memorial service was held on Saturday at the Sanctuary at All Souls Unitarian Church in Manhattan. Later, friends and family gathered at the Third Avenue Ale House to watch N.C.A.A. basketball.
His wife has suggested donations in his name to the Melanoma Research Alliance at curemelanoma.org.
