Veteran newspaper columnist Robert Novak is being remembered as a dogged reporter and a generous friend.

Novak succumbed to a brain tumor early Tuesday at his home in Washington, D.C.

Novak correctly predicted that the lede of his obituary would be about his his decision to publish the name of a covert C.I.A. agent in 2003.

The subsequent federal investigation into the Valerie Plame affair led to the conviction of a top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney.

But fellow Chicago Sun-Times writer Lynn Sweet says there was more to Novak.

SWEET: Personally, he was just only nice and kind and wonderful and generous to me.  So beneath that gruff interior was just a very nice man.

Novak was born and raised in Joliet, Ill. He began writing for the Sun-Times in 1966.  Novak went on to become a nationally syndicated columnist and cable news commentator. He was 78 years old.