He lifted weights three times a week in his home gym. His Stanford roommate, Norman Nourse, suggested that he try the shotput throwing a 16-pound iron ball. Doctors said his right arm, yanked from its socket by the impact, would be virtually useless for the rest of his life. When I asked what he did, he just said, I work at The Times,. Thomas recalled. Sure, like any business executive, there were times when I would like to have been away from it all, free of responsibilities. Lewy body disease is a brain disorder combining some of the most debilitating characteristics of Parkinsons and Alzheimers diseases. The night he arrived home, his young familys possessions crammed into a used station wagon and rented trailer, his mother and father welcomed him enthusiastically. Knowing that he couldnt create a high-quality, widely respected news organization if he relied exclusively on wire service reports and his existing staff, he began hiring top reporters and editors from other major news organizations and opening Times bureaus around the world. Many Chandler associates said his marriages breakup and the end of his publishership were inextricably intertwined. After the papers decision to endorse Nixon for reelection as president in 1972 caused a newsroom firestorm, The Times announced in 1973 that it would no longer routinely endorse candidates for president, governor or U.S. senator. But the Mirror continued to falter, and his parents decided they didnt want his first command to be that of a sinking ship. Chandler changed The Times so dramatically and became so identified with the paper that when he left the publishers office at age 52, and again when he relinquished his corporate titles five years later, employees at The Times and Chandlers peers throughout the industry were both stunned and puzzled. Or did it, in some way, lead the region into change? He built a newspaper that was as great as the city it covers. It was clear to me that it meant a lot to him and that he didnt want to feel shut out.. When Chandler left the publishers office and again when he left the chairmans job, his former colleagues worried that without him, they would no longer be immune to corporate and outside pressures. Son of Norman Chandler and Dorothy Buffum Chandler Though Chandler said he was naturally saddened that Times Mirror will cease to exist and saddened by the end of local ownership, he had wondered aloud for at least five years whether Times Mirror could continue to thrive on its own in the turn-of-the-century mega-media merger environment. "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," journalist David Halberstam wrote in his history of the company. In a controversial 1996 story in Vanity Fair, Chandler was quoted as criticizing his relatives as coupon clippers elitists bored with the problems of AIDS and the homeless and drive-by shootings. They wished The Times wouldnt cover those issues, and they werent interested in either the papers editorial quality or its social responsibility, he said. 'It was three outside members of the [Times Mirror] board who persuaded him to do it When doctors said Otis was dead, Mrs. Chandler wailed, My son is not dead! She picked him up and raced to another hospital, screaming all the way there, Otis is alive, Otis is alive!. Research genealogy for Otis Chandler of Mingo, West Virginia, as well as other members of the Chandler family, on Ancestry. She was athletic, she surfed, she hunted and she was always vying for equal status or greater status than Otis, said Howard Gilmore, one of Chandlers longtime hunting companions. His successors, he said, had been "unbelievably stupid" and caused "the most serious single threat to the future" of the paper his family had bought in 1882 for this dangerous compromise of the paper's objectivity. While he was hunting in Mozambique in 1964, an elephant charged him, his wife and their guide. Hes restless. The pay was $48 a week. [1], Chandler made improvement of the paper's quality a top priority, succeeding in raising the product's reputation, as well as its profit margins. He was skinny all right 6 feet 1, 155 pounds but he played varsity soccer and basketball, high-jumped and ran the mile, and his successes gave him an identity. He also began to develop a love of speed and once had to do a stint in traffic school after getting a speeding ticket on his bicycle, he said. Otis Chandler (November 23, 1927 February 27, 2006) was the publisher of the Los Angeles Times between 1960 and 1980, leading a large expansion of the newspaper and its ambitions. If a newspaper, even a great newspaper like the Los Angeles Times, loses credibility with its community, with its readers, with its advertisers, with its shareholders, that is probably the most serious circumstance that I can possibly envision. When The Times consistently provided editorial support for various downtown redevelopment projects, civic activists were quick to say the projects would enhance the value of the Chandler familys real estate interests there. [1], On a 1964 safari in Mozambique, an elephant charged his party. The GeoTek debacle helped greatly exacerbate the colon problem. In 1977, Chandler brought Tom Johnson, publisher of the Dallas Times-Herald and a former aide to President Johnson (no relation), to Los Angeles as president of The Times and heir apparent for publisher. [1], Chandler was an enthusiastic athlete and thrill seeker, an image he actively cultivated. Regardless, Chandler welcomed the outcome, largely because of his dissatisfaction with the existing management of Times-Mirror. [1], Times editorial page editor Anthony Day observed that Chandler "had been raised to be a prince". I dont butt in.. Asked in a 1997 television interview whether he was satisfied with his legacy, he replied: I wanted to be No. Otis Chandler at the Los Angeles Times in 2003 with a photo of his mother, Dorothy Chandler, in the backgorund. In the next three years, The Times changed as perhaps no other American newspaper has ever done in such a short time. On it, neatly typed, was a seven-year executive training program, scheduled to begin that Sunday night. But he persisted and in 1978 at age 50, after years of what he called Walter Mitty fantasies about becoming a race car driver finally got a chance to race professionally. Chandler was growing weary, worn down by the rigors of work and the burdens of responsibility, dispirited by GeoTek and his failing marriage, getting by mostly on nervous energy, with big circles under my eyes, he later said. Otis Chandler (November 23, 1927 February 27, 2006) was the publisher of the Los Angeles Times between 1960 and 1980, leading a large expansion of the newspaper and its ambitions. New Search for: Last Name First Name (optional) Locality: Worldwide Information for This Surname Explore MyHeritage's records for the Otis family (Source: MyHeritage) Cemeteries He missed the day-to-day challenge and the interaction with the editors and with the news. The Times, on his watch, consistently editorialized in favor of gun control, but Chandler himself was a strong advocate of the right to bear arms. The paper warmly endorsed Nixon but also praised Browns accomplishments in the same editorial. Prep Rally is devoted to the SoCal high school sports experience, bringing you scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular. Ultimately, there was little that Chandler could or would do to influence the fate of The Times beyond this brief but dramatic entry into the fray. Williams and Frank McCullough, one of the papers two managing editors, agreed at the outset of the gubernatorial campaign to monitor the coverage inch by inch to ensure that both candidates were covered fairly and equally. He expected the very best of himself and of those around him.. At 71, he resumed playing tennis. The Chandlers had no rival as the most powerful family in Southern California. Willes had taken charge of the company after a deep and prolonged recession that hit The Times particularly hard; circulation at the paper was declining, and both the stock price and the profits of Times Mirror were falling even faster. Chandler attended Stanford, where he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Sigma Rho chapter). You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. The corporate air was a little too rarified for him, said Swayze, his secretary. He was bold in making changes and investments in the paper that transformed The Times into a world-class news organization., Otis was a giant in every way, said Donald Graham, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of the Washington Post Co. The paper you are reading is his monument. About the same time, McKinsey & Co., a management consulting firm, was conducting another of its periodic studies for The Times, and it too recommended dividing the responsibilities of publisher and chairman. A public memorial will be held Monday at All Saints Church in Pasadena. Although all three of his sons worked at the paper for varying periods, none ascended into the top executive ranks. Ex-husband of Marilyn "Missy" Chandler Stewart Otis and Williams perhaps the ablest newspaper editor of his generation, in Halberstams words became a formidable team. I must confess, he said, I am getting darn tired of defending myself as a hunting person.. Those included an increase in the amount of news the paper printed, the adoption of a new statement of principles and ethical guidelines, and the publication of an investigation into how and why the Staples deal had occurred. About that time, Otis began telling Nick Williams, the editor of the paper, the kinds of improvements he envisioned making if and when he had the authority. Ruth Chandler 1897-1987. Chandler cared deeply about how The Times was regarded by East Coast opinion-makers, and more than 40 years after his father first took him to a national convention of newspaper publishers, he could still recall, with an edge in his voice, how clear it was that The Times was regarded as a bad newspaper from a hick town.. By the time of graduation, he weighed 200 pounds. He was rejected anyway; his shoulders and hips were still too big to fit into the cockpit of a jet. They wanted to impeach Earl Warren, chief justice of the United States. Having been rebuffed by Willes in a spring 1999 inquiry about buying Times Mirror, Tribune executives went around him several months later and dealt directly with Chandler family members and their representatives. They didnt like the L.A. Times, he said in the 2005 interview. Southern California was considered a cultural backwater, and despite his familys vast wealth and power, Chandler felt like a hick. They would race their cars down the Pasadena Freeway at 140 mph in the predawn hours en route to weightlifting sessions at the Times gym and double cheeseburgers at Tommys, just west of downtown. He told me several times, and other people, that no Chandler would again be publisher of The Times, he added, and I thought that was a curious thing to say, especially since some of the Chandler children seemed perfectly suited to be publisher, at least as suited as Otis.. Over time, Chandler and others said, that began to wear on him. As long as I knew him, Otis had an adventurous spirit and the courage to pursue it.. In 1986, Chandler surrendered the titles of chairman and editor in chief, although he remained on the board and took on the largely ceremonial role of chairman of the companys executive committee. As a weightlifter, Chandler finished third in the nation competing in the heavyweight division. USE LINKPENDIUM'S FAMILY DISCOVERER TO SEARCH 2,804,127 FREE GENEALOGY SOURCES! Many invested with Burke, who raised more than $30 million among 2,200 individuals over eight years. As much as Chandler remained interested in The Times, he immensely enjoyed his retirement years. . Chandler, who had retired 19 years prior, sent his message directly to reporters, to the dismay of the newspaper's management. I always had the feeling that I wasnt welcome in the building when Mark was in charge that maybe theyd have a guard try to throw me out if I tried to come in. I was a B student.). Otis Chandler in MyHeritage family trees (Sturtevant Web Site) view all 15 Immediate Family Diana Chandler mother Asa Chandler, Jr. father Cynthia Bailey sister Emily (Chandler) Washburn sister Diana Chandler sister Noah Chandler, I brother Lucinda Chandler sister Laura Chandler sister Martin Chandler brother David Chandler brother George Chandler [2] In 1945, her husband became publisher of the Times, a position he held until he was succeeded by their son, Otis, in 1960. In 1995, when he was 68, his motorcycle collided with a tractor in New Zealand, leaving him with part of the big toe on his left foot missing, another toe severely damaged and the rest of the foot largely numb. Emma Marian Otis 1866-1952. Harry Chandler was born in Landaff, New Hampshire to Moses K. and Emma J. He said I had to be well-rounded and implied that it was so I could ultimately take some executive position. When he was with you, he was really with you, Harry said. Otis Chandler was born on July 24, 1924. Chandler was an exotic, at times mythic figure among the nations newspaper executives, most of whose exertions and excursions outside the boardroom were generally limited to golf courses and cruise ships. On arrival, she encountered a doctor she knew, and he revived the boy with a shot of adrenaline in the heart. He used the same tone of voice with the president of the United States and the guy who came to change the lightbulbs in his office, said Donna Swayze, his executive secretary from 1962 to 1988. The Mirror was losing $30,000 a week, and Otis sent his father a confidential memo urging that a strong business manager be hired. The Dowling Family Tree with over half a million relatives,contains thousands of pictures and over four thousand GeneaStars.We are all related! Thirty years later, he could still recall receiving a message from a fellow surfer one morning in the late 1960s telling him that waves were cresting at 12 to 15 feet off Dana Point the largest Southern California surf of my lifetime, he said. Of all the political figures to benefit from The Times partisanship over the years, none had been more favored, or more successful, than Nixon. His son was perfectly willing, indeed eager, to do and spend whatever was necessary to achieve journalistic respectability. The only other possible publisher in the family, however, was Normans younger brother Philip, then general manager of The Times and a member of the Times Mirror board. Chandler tried to make amends, claiming he had been misquoted, but the damage had been done. 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