New York Post reporter Conor Skelding loses battle with cancer

Conor Skelding, a talented and respected member of The Post’s Sunday staff specializing in government and politics, died Friday after a yearlong battle with pancreatic cancer.

He was 31.

Skelding, a native of Chicago, joined The Post in April 2021 after several years as a reporter with Politico and Reorg.

“Conor Skelding was a fine journalist and a better human being,” Post Sunday editor Paul McPolin said.

“On the job, he was tough, insightful, fair, and always respectful,” McPolin said. “He fought valiantly against cancer, and his optimism and positivity until the end was enormously inspiring to his friends and colleagues at the New York Post.”

Skelding’s father, David, described his son as “an exceptionally bright and exceptionally witty person.

“He had a high degree of courtesy and civility in his interactions with others,” David Skelding said.

“He had a kind of a winsome, sometimes a little cynical but always affectionate, personality,” the father said. “And he had a real keen eye for things, which might have explained his career choice.”

Conor Skelding graduated from St. Ignatius College Prep in his native Chicago in 2010 and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in New York City in 2014, with majors in English and American studies.

Skelding had been editor of the Blue and White, Columbia University’s undergraduate magazine.

He met his future wife, Lizzy Trelstad, a fellow alum of Columbia, after the pair graduated. They would remain together for six years until they were married March 25, less than a month before his death.

“I think The Post ended up being a perfect job for him,” Trelstad said. “He wasn’t sure if he wanted to go back to law school. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to do something a little bit more niche — he’d come from doing all this financial reporting.

“For a year or so, he was out on the streets and knew how to navigate and look at the city in ways that even native New Yorkers don’t understand how to,” she said. “He would get annoyed at me that I hadn’t memorized the subway yet.

“I think he approached this job with a want — through The Post’s own style — to reveal all these truths in the world.”

She said her husband was also part of the Inner Circle, a group founded by New York City journalists that pokes fun at politics at an annual gala. Skelding — a talented musician and singer who “had perfect pitch” — once portrayed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his wife said.

She said her husband was diagnosed with cancer April 28, 2022.

In his final piece for The Post, Skelding exposed how the US Foreign Service was “dumbing down” its application process, raising concerns about the future of national security.

His work ran the gamut from reports on Big Apple subway crime and spikes in traffic deaths to a public-service story on the premature deterioration of the $2.4 billion Hudson Yards subway station.

Skelding is survived by his wife; his parents, David Skelding and Dr. Karen Deighan; his brothers, Cameron, Owen and Aidan Skelding; his sisters-in-law, Caroline Hurley and Joanna Skelding; and his niece, Luciana Skelding.

A wake will be held at St. John Cantius Church in Chicago on Thursday evening, with a funeral Mass at the church scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Friday.

In lieu of flowers, the family is asking for donations to the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius.