Coronavirus: William Helmreich, Professor Who Walked All Of NYC, Dies Of COVID-19 Illness

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NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/CNN) - A local professor who found fame by trying to walk every street in New York City has reportedly died of COVID-19 coronavirus-related illness at his home in Great Neck.

William Helmreich, the 74-year-old sociologist and author of "The New York Nobody Knows: Walking 6,000 Miles in the City," died Saturday, according to his son Jeffrey Helmreich.

According to reports by CNN, Helmreich was born in Switzerland to Holocaust survivors, immigrated to New York City as an infant and eventually becoming a sociology professor at the City College of New York.

Helmreich said the idea to chronicle life on every street throughout the five boroughs was likely ingrained in his mind after, as a boy, his father would take him on random trips to city neighborhoods.

"I think in that way, my interest in New York City was kindled at an early age," Helmreich told CBS2's Andrea Grymes in an in-studio interview back in 2015.

"Professor Helmreich was a true City College institution, a man with a restless curiosity about the people around him, a ceaseless investigator and an avid storyteller," CCNY President Vincent Boudreau said in a statement.