In 1995, after moving to another ranch in Oregon, he announced that hed found paradise. The collection also included dozens of vintage motorcycles, some of which were loaned to the Guggenheim Museum for its Art of the Motorcycle exhibit, which opened in 1998. Two years later, he was made marketing manager of The Times. Chandler had had earlier problems with his health, suffering from prostate cancer in 1989 and a 1998 heart attack. [1], His son, Mike Chandler, was a race-car driver in the CART Championship Car series. For the first time in his life, he found his personal integrity seriously questioned. login . 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, David Halberstam wrote in The Powers That Be, his 1979 book about the news media. Chandler would assume the newly created position of editor in chief of Times Mirror and, on Jan. 1, 1981, he would succeed Murphy as chairman. When he was a little older, he set up his own backyard basketball backboard and high-jump pit, and practiced both sports, by himself, hour after hour. Since mandatory retirement age for the publisher was then 65, that conveniently eliminated the 52-year-old Philip. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. Well before Chandler was named publisher, a poll of Washington correspondents conducted by writer Leo Rosten named The Times one of the three least fair and reliable newspapers in the country. For the first time in five years, I felt like I wasnt a leper. Compare DNA and explore genealogy for Otis Ashmore Chandler born 1891 Five Points, Banks, Georgia, United States died 1956 DeKalb, Georgia, United States including ancestors + children + Y-chromosome DNA + more in the free family tree community. If you will, its too complicated.. [1] He was the son of Norman Chandler, his predecessor as publisher, and Dorothy Buffum Chandler, a patron of the arts and a Regent of the University of California. At the time of her death in 1997, she had eight grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. A tribute will be held at The Times at a later date for Times staff, as well as retirees from the paper and the Times Mirror Corp. His remarks were reported in publications from coast to coast. Victims suffer from severe dementia, as well as the stiffness, tremors and impaired movements characteristic of Parkinsons. One had only to visit the mens room in his car and wildlife museum its walls covered with posters of scantily clad women draped over shiny sports cars to realize that his ultra-masculinity wasnt limited to guns, barbells, fast cars and motorcycles. Everyone wondered why, at so young an age, he would step away from something that he had had such an enormous impact in building, Louis D. Boccardi, former president and chief executive officer of Associated Press, said more than a decade later. [1], In 1986, Chandler won the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism to honor his years of service to the newspaper.[3]. Chandler was raised to share his family's distaste for labor unions, a tradition that favored the family's financial interests. Chandler, who had retired 19 years prior, sent his message directly to reporters, to the dismay of the newspaper's management. But Tribune had long had Times Mirror in its corporate sights. But as the children grew up and she had more time available, she embarked on a career of her own she got womens lib is how Chandler put it and that exacerbated tensions between them. Newspapers are a mature, non-growth industry, vulnerable to cyclical economic downturns and increases in the cost of newsprint, he said. His mother rushed him to a second hospital, where a doctor she knew revived him with an adrenaline shot to the heart. Former Times publisher Tom Johnson, left, greets Otis Chandler at a USC Annenberg Distinguished Achievement Awards dinner in January 2000. Away from the paper, off the board, with most of his Times Mirror stock in trust, he no longer had the power or the inclination to do anything concrete, not even as a fourth third-generation newspapering Chandler. Chandler made improvement of the paper's quality a top priority, succeeding in raising the product's reputation, as well as its profit margins. Thats why we diversified the company and went into television and cable and forest products and books and medical and legal publishing.. Willes, he said in 1999, was basically undoing what I and my father and Franklin Murphy all did, dating back to 1958. It wasnt as much fun.. He sought largely solitary recreational activities throughout his adult life surfing, lifting weights, racing, cycling, hunting. [citation needed]. Although Chandler had previously been insistent that his criticisms of the business strategies pursued by Times management remain private, this undermining of the papers editorial integrity stirred him to action. Chandler liked the shotput and weightlifting, he once said, because they were individual sports, and he could be judged on his own merits. One cannot successfully run a great newspaper like the Los Angeles Times with executives in the top two positions, both of whom have no newspaper experience at any level, Chandler said. And sooner or later Im afraid well have to align ourselves with one of those companies to ensure the long-term survival of The Times., When Tribune turned out to be that company, Chandler said, Of all the people, of all the media companies that Times Mirror could join, this is the most logical and probably the best company.. He moved gradually at first, then much more quickly, especially after hiring Day, who joined the paper as chief editorial writer in 1969 and later became editor of the editorial pages. Historical Person Search Search Search Results Results Otis Chandler (1919 - 1980) Try FREE for 14 days Try FREE for 14 days How do we create a person's profile? Not once did the article refer to Brown by name. Chandler welcomed Tribune in part because he admired its management and strategy and in part because he thought its diverse holdings four newspapers, 22 television stations and an aggressive Internet presence would help stabilize The Times financial position in the new century. But Thomas said it really didnt take much persuasion, because he really did want to go., Chandler himself said: I think some of the family members and some of the corporate people were hoping I would step aside although I dont recall that there was strong pressure.. [1], In 1966 Chandler received the Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award as well as an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Colby College. He also showed his father skills that went beyond the reportorial. Alberta Chandler, the wife of Chandlers uncle (and rival) Philip, was a prominent member of the Birch Society, and she and Philip had played host to Birch Society President Robert Welch. Chandlers primary role was to provide the impetus, framework and financial support for change, rather than dictating specifics. Heres a man who led a full life, said Otis Booth, his cousin and longtime hunting companion. Norman, the eldest, went through an executive training program and rose to be composing superintendent a position overseeing much of the physical production of the paper before leaving in 1989, when he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. When stories in local alternative weeklies, followed by the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, disclosed details of the deal, the newsroom erupted in protest, circulating petitions and demanding an apology from Downing, the publisher, who had signed the original founding partner agreement. George Cotliar, who joined the paper three years before Chandler became publisher and served as an editor for almost 40 years, said The Times had been widely regarded as a crappy newspaper and a politically biased newspaper, and the Birch series and the editorial were a statement to the staff too. The New York Times even published an editorial under the headline The Truth According to Otis Chandler.. Otis said he wanted a more assertive, more liberal editorial page, Day said. Geni requires JavaScript! Concerned by the growing competition from television, Chandler urged his editors to transform the paper into a regional daily newsmagazine that placed a high premium on analysis, interpretation and good writing not just covering the days events but putting them in context and doing so in a lively and compelling fashion. More than most high-level executives, Chandler also seemed willing to interrupt the workday occasionally when pleasure beckoned. This was the only big investment I ever made, and I didnt do any investigation of it beforehand. Otis Family Trees, Crests, Genealogy, DNA, More add your favorite Website (s) to this page! . When Burke was accused of fraud, Chandler too became a target of civil legal proceedings. He was, in general, something of a loner, a trait he traced partly to spending my young years on that ranch in Sierra Madre, a little remote, rather than on a neighborhood street with a lot of kids. Asked repeatedly in one interview to name his best childhood friends, he came up blank. Nobody had ever heard of the Chandlers, he said later. 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. When the guide missed his shot and ran off in a panic, Chandler shot the elephant in the leg at a distance of 10 yards, deflecting the animal just enough to send it thundering past them. Within an hour, I had gathered things up in my briefcase, told my secretary, Well, we can shine those afternoon meetings off, and headed for Dana Point.., In a speech to a hunting conference in 1980, he described some of his other outdoor pursuits: I am primarily a gun hunter, both rifle and shotgun. Since his first run for Congress in 1946, he had been championed by The Times as he successfully ran for U.S. Senate and then for the vice presidency on the Eisenhower ticket. Missy and I had had a good marriage, but we just werent getting along anymore in the last 10 years. Chandler insisted that he wasnt giving up the journalistic chase or losing his competitive edge, simply assuming a larger corporate responsibility. We wouldnt be working here if it werent for him.. Otis Chandler died at age 51 years old in March 1971. Chandler said there was no simple answer: The region was changing, the demographic was changing, the type of paper was changing, he said. His Stanford roommate, Norman Nourse, suggested that he try the shotput throwing a 16-pound iron ball. [2] In 1945, her husband became publisher of the Times, a position he held until he was succeeded by their son, Otis, in 1960. Her father had been mayor of Long Beach. Some close to the family and the paper suggest that it might have been Mrs. Chandler who asked the board members to pressure her husband to step aside as publisher so he could devote his full attention to his chairmanship of the parent Times Mirror company, which was about to embark on a major diversification program. Toward that end, he initiated a more aggressive marketing program, expanded the papers geographic reach and started the Orange County edition to serve the burgeoning population there the first such satellite plant for any metropolitan daily in the country. He was rejected anyway; his shoulders and hips were still too big to fit into the cockpit of a jet. On that wisp of a lure, the room filled up with the cream of the Southern California establishment: corporate heads, college presidents, prominent lawyers and judges, Los Angeles Mayor Norris Poulson, members of the county Board of Supervisors, former California Gov. Until shortly before his death in 1973, Chandlers father had helped insulate him from those protests. Chandler had long felt that Willes hadnt shown enough respect for him and what he had accomplished. He lived out one of his fathers fantasies when he became a professional race car driver, but nearly died in 1984 when his car slammed into a wall at the Indianapolis 500. It was a watershed experience, he said. They saw the sinister hand of communism behind such government initiatives as fluoridation of the water supply and integration of the schools. Chandler pursued excellence in every aspect of his life, said Tom Johnson. He lost part of the big toe on his left foot, saw another toe severely damaged and the rest of the foot became largely numb. Although The Times had, on rare occasion, endorsed conservative Democrats for state legislative and U.S. House seats, the backing of a Democrat for such a high office was a momentous decision, Chandler said in a 2005 interview. He said to me many times that he hadnt wanted to come to the paper in the first place, but he felt an obligation to his family to do it, said Robert F. Erburu, who succeeded Chandler as Times Mirror chairman. Three top editors asked Boyarsky not to read the statement aloud, fearing that it would further provoke an already enraged staff. Otis himself offered contradictory explanations of his mothers role in his promotion, befitting a mother-son relationship that had its share of paradox. It was clear to me that it meant a lot to him and that he didnt want to feel shut out.. As a Times columnist, he would become one of the most celebrated sportswriters ever. His first year, he increased it 45%. But he did send memos to Williams, the editor, periodically in his early years as publisher criticizing the business and sports sections, for example, and complaining about the content and design of the Sunday magazine, then as now called West. For him a project is a process, a growth. While in college, he sometimes worked summers at the paper, most often moving printing plates and other heavy equipment. 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. Like his father, who had also been kept on tight purse strings by his father, Otis often split the bill with his fiancee or let her pick up the tab when they dated. We collect and match historical records that Ancestry users have contributed to their family trees to create each person's profile. Chandler said he wanted to hunt only the rarest and the biggest and the best, and he killed more than 100 such animals 10-foot brown bears and polar bears, lions and musk ox, wild antelope and mountain sheep many of which he had mounted on the walls of a trophy room in the home he shared with his first wife in San Marino. When Williams showed him the piece, the publisher said it wasnt tough enough. 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. 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. But the Mirror continued to falter, and his parents decided they didnt want his first command to be that of a sinking ship. Hes restless. Chandler attended Stanford, where he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Sigma Rho chapter). I like living on the edge, he said in a 1999 interview, five months after his 71st birthday and two weeks after he suffered minor head injuries when he spun out in one of his Ferraris near the vintage-car and wildlife museum he owned in Oxnard. He was airlifted to a hospital. So did the shutdown in January 1962 of the Mirror and the Examiner, the morning Hearst newspaper. Later he would briefly attend the Cate School boarding school in Carpinteria before his parents elected to send him east to attend Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. Well into his 70s, he maintained a long-distance bicycling regimen that few people half his age could attempt. 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. He broke the freshman school record with a toss of 48 feet (15m), 761/47inches. 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. Respect and credibility for a newspaper is irreplaceable.. Because he had five children and heavy corporate responsibilities, his wife tried to dissuade him from this favored leisure time activity. Other family members had gathered at the Chandler home. Otis Chandler, whose vision and determination as publisher of the Los Angeles Times from 1960 to 1980 catapulted the paper from mediocrity into the front ranks of American journalism, died today of a degenerative illness called Lewy body disease. Was the daughter of General Harrison Gray Otis and Secretary of the Times-Mirror Company (formerly the publishing company of the Los Angeles Times ). But he also worried about his legacy, and he increasingly spoke critically, if only in private at first, about his unhappiness with the direction of Times Mirror and the paper under Mark Willes, a former executive at General Mills who had been hired to succeed Erburu as chairman and chief executive in 1995 and also assumed the title of Times publisher when Richard T. Schlosberg III retired unexpectedly in 1997. As a weightlifter, Chandler finished third in the nation competing in the heavyweight division. As a boy, he would stand alongside his father and grandfather at Hollywood Cemetery (now Hollywood Forever) in annual memorials to the victims of a bomb blast that wrecked the Times building in 1910, killing 20 workers. Chandler later insisted that he hadnt meant to demean blacks and Latinos, but the remark haunted him and the paper for many years. His mother scooped him up and rushed to the hospital, steering the car with one hand and holding his hand with the other, frantically searching for a pulse. I occasionally hunt with a bow I am a saltwater fisherman and dry-fly freshwater fisherman, a gun collector, a sometime skeet and target shooter, an avid backpacker, outdoor photographer, trophy skinner, wild game gourmet but a lousy cook. Both refused. But he said he wished people realized that if hed been left totally on his own, he might have done something different, so why did they question it when he finally decided he would do something different., Although Chandler often likened himself to the eagle that serves as the symbol of The Times I like to soar, to get above the minutiae and the crowds he insisted that as long as he was publisher, I was living the life I wanted to live. Otis Chandler, whose vision and determination as publisher of the Los Angeles Times from 1960 to 1980 catapulted the paper from mediocrity into the front ranks of American journalism, died. He was particularly resentful of Willes frequent promise to reinvent the newspaper and Willes and Downings unwillingness to consult him. Ex-husband of Marilyn "Missy" Chandler Stewart 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. A public memorial will be held Monday at All Saints Church in Pasadena. But former Editor Thomas, who joined the paper two years after Otis became publisher, said that although Chandler was basically a C-plus student his focus and tenacity made him an A-plus as a publisher or almost anything else he really put his mind to., (Jesus, Bill, Chandler told Thomas when he learned what the editor had said. Chandler re-entered the public eye in 1999 when he publicly criticized the LA Times for creating a special issue of its Sunday magazine dedicated to the new Staples Center in downtown LA when the paper shared a financial interest in the property. He was the fourth and final member of the Chandler family to hold the paper's top position. Despite the enormous difference in their socioeconomic status, the two remained close friends for more than 30 years. Seldom has a newspaper had such an opportunity to meld the best of three staffs. But he also had a princes sense of entitlement, a sense that perhaps I dont have to do this every damn day, he added. [1], On a 1964 safari in Mozambique, an elephant charged his party. Its not their kind of newspaper, he said. [1], Chandler was raised on a 10-acre (40,000m2) citrus ranch in Sierra Madre owned by his parents. His grandfather, Charles Abel Buffum, was a businessman who founded Buffum's, a department store chain, with his brother, Edwin E. Buffum, and a politician, who served as Mayor of Long Beach, California. He spent 1951 to 1953 on the ground in the Air Force, supervising sports and acting as co-captain of the Air Force track team at Camp Stoneman in the San Francisco Bay Area. 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 it turned out, however, several members of the Chandler family had begun to share Otis disenchantment with Willes, especially the companys lack of diversification, interest in new media and long-term strategic plan, as Chandlers sister, Camilla Chandler Frost, put it the morning the sale to Tribune was announced. Chandler acknowledged that it was a difficult time for newspapers, but he disagreed vigorously with Willes approach. Southern California was considered a cultural backwater, and despite his familys vast wealth and power, Chandler felt like a hick. Retired Times publisher Otis Chandlers car collection included a 1931 Duesenberg LeBaron Special Phaeton. In August 1972, the Wall Street Journal broke the story, which dragged on for several years before a federal court sentenced Burke to 30 months in prison. With Otis gone, the heat shield was gone, Johnson said. 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. Only then did Chandler tell Thomas about himself and his family. He entered a six-hour endurance race in Watkins Glen, N.Y., teamed with John Thomas, his motorcycle buddy and Porsche mechanic, who had long raced cars himself.

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