In Memoriam

Bob Marshall, a former county editor and later assistant managing editor at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, died March 28, 2019, the newspaper reports. He was 84. “He was very smart, kind of a bookworm personality, very dedicated to news gathering and ethics,” said his wife, Sally Ann Maas, also a former P-E editor. “Everyone who…

Joseph Knowland, former editor and publisher of The Oakland Tribune, died March 14, 2019, The Mercury News reports. He was 88. The California Press Association named Joseph Knowland its Newspaper Executive of the Year in 1975. Knowland, a UC Berkeley alum, began as a cub reporter at The Tribune and later trained in every department.…

Phillip B. Jaffe, a former publisher of Brehm Communications Inc.’s Mountain News in Lake Arrowhead, died Feb. 19, 2019, his family reported. He was 85. Jaffe, whose printing and publishing career spanned more than 40 years, was publisher in Lake Arrowhead from 1983 to 1998. Earlier, he had owned a printing company and was a…

William Russell Harris, a former managing editor at the old Blade-Citizen and North County Times, died Feb. 21, 2019, The San Diego Union-Tribune reports. He was 64 and had cancer. Harris’ 35-year news career included stints at newspapers in Kansas and Texas. He joined the Blade-Tribune in Oceanside as Business editor in 1987 and later…

Steve Lawrence, who had been the longest-tenured member of California’s capital press corps when he retired in 2009 after 37 years with the Associated Press, died Feb. 22, 2019, the AP reports. He was 71 and had cancer. “People liked him, the elected officials and staffers, but he was a true wire service reporter —…

Rex Wilson, a former managing editor at the Times-Standard in Eureka, died Feb. 6, 2019, the newspaper reported. He was 70. Wilson was managing editor at The Times-Standard from 1989 to 1997. He previously had worked at the old El Monte Herald, Whittier Daily News and Orange County Register. Wilson later was managing editor of…

Charles Cooper, a former editor at the San Francisco Examiner, the old Hayward Daily Review and several other U.S. newspapers, died Jan. 19, 2019, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. He was 76 and died from complications after heart surgery. “He was a really important part of San Francisco journalism,” said longtime friend Peter Bhatia, now…

Claudia Smith-Hill, former editor of the weekly Willits News in Mendocino County, died Dec. 19, 2018, the newspaper reported. She was 97. Claudia started at the newspaper as a clerk and social editor. Later, she and husband Richard Hill, along with four other families, acquired the newspaper in 1973 and ran it for 24 years.…

Doug Ernst, former editor of the Napa Valley Register and publisher of the St. Helena Star and The Weekly Calistogan, died Dec. 11, 2018, after a short battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), The Register reported. He was 64. Ernst served a total of 33 years in Napa Valley journalism. The San Jose State alum…

Diane Lopez, a Tracy Press staff member for 34 years, died Dec. 13, 2018, at her home in Manteca, the newspaper reports. She was 62 and had battled cancer. Lopez, with the paper from 1982 to 2015, had been classified advertising manager, general advertising account executive and manager, and marketing and human resources director. “Diane…