Otis Chandler Passed

[Mr70]

LOS ANGELES - Otis Chandler, who transformed his family's Los Angeles Times from a provincial, conservative paper into a respected national media voice, died Monday. He was 78.

Chandler died at his home in Ojai, said Tom Johnson, who had succeeded Chandler as publisher. He said Chandler had been suffering from a neurological disorder known as Lewy body disease.

Chandler was the scion of a family that wielded financial and political power in the Los Angeles area for decades.

With his blond hair, weightlifter physique and love of surfing, he was a quintessential Californian of his generation. As a publisher, he spent most of his career chafing against what he sensed was an East Coast bias against Los Angeles and fought to elevate the Los Angeles Times.

"No publisher in America improved a paper so quickly on so grand a scale, took a paper that was marginal in qualities and brought it to excellence as Otis Chandler did," wrote David Halberstam in his 1979 book "The Powers that Be."

Chandler continued to cast a large shadow over the Times long after he resigned as the paper's publisher in 1980 after 20 years at the helm.

He left as chairman in 1985 but returned as a newsroom hero in 2000, publicly chiding the paper's management, which he blamed for an embarrassing scandal and severe cost-cutting that damaged its reputation. Soon after, the Chandler Family Trust sold newspaper parent company Times Mirror Co. to the Tribune Co.

"I was building up a hell of a head of steam," he said in an interview in The New York Times in 2000. "The Times is not as dear to me as my own family, but it's close."

Chandler was groomed from an early age to take control of his family's newspaper. He worked as a printer's apprentice, reporter and in the advertising and circulation departments. In 1960, he succeeded his father as publisher at age 33.

The paper was considered parochial and partisan, a mouthpiece for conservative political causes.

Almost immediately, Chandler initiated changes designed to fulfill his goal of making the paper one of the country's best. He moved the paper toward the political center and angered conservative allies - and family members - by publishing a series of stories on the right-wing John Birch Society.

He hired more reporters, raised salaries, opened overseas bureaus and beefed up the paper's coverage of Washington, D.C. His efforts resulted in the Times winning seven Pulitzer prizes during his tenure.

Johnson said Chandler's wife, Bettina, was with him when he died.

[Charley Lillard]

Sad.. He was probably the first public figure to build a superior collection of Supercars.

[JoeG]

Opening his collection to the public really brought back the American Musclecar spirit to the Hobby.....

[396L35]

That is sad to hear... God speed Otis...

[BUIZILLA]

When all is said and done, Otis will probably be known as the father figure of the hobby we chase today.

Godspeed, to a great visionary.

Jim

[Born30YrsLate]

The book about his collection is going to be the story book I read to my kids for their bed time story...

[sYc]

[ QUOTE ]
When all is said and done, Otis will probably be known as the father figure of the hobby we chase today.


[/ QUOTE ]

No doubt.

May he rest in peace.