Michael R. Levitas, a journalist who won the prestigious George Polk Award in his 20s for a series on labor racketeering, and who held leading newsroom positions at The New York Times for decades, died June 29 at his home in New Marlborough, MA. He was 89.

Of particular interest to North Fork residents, Mr. Levitas wrote a profile of Robert David Lion Gardiner, the 16th lord of the 3,000-acre manor off the East End of Long Island known as Gardiners Island, which had been in the family for 11 generations. Accompanying the article was a brief note identifying himself as the author. With his tongue stuck firmly in his cheek, he wrote, “Michael Levitas is himself the lord of a manor, a heavily mortgaged summer place on Martha’s Vineyard that has been in the family for less than one generation.”