I cringe to think that they had to have written this in advance.
It's sad to think about, but with the flood of text being printed I wonder how much of it was pre-written and how much of it was simply pre-thought as those in the circles heard word.
Why? It's common practice to pre-write obituaries for famous people, no matter how healthy they are. And it leads to a better obit that can be richer because of the time invested in it beforehand (the Economist's obits are usually very well done).