Thomas, who was among the editors brought over from the Mirror, said he believed that the windfall of local talent was as responsible for The Times subsequent success as the hiring of big guns from the East. Retired Times publisher Otis Chandlers car collection included a 1931 Duesenberg LeBaron Special Phaeton. 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. Chandler later insisted that he hadnt meant to demean blacks and Latinos, but the remark haunted him and the paper for many years. It may sound strange for a Chandler to say this, he said in one such conversation, but I dont think my family and the other people running the company are looking ahead enough to the Internet and other new media. With the Mirror still losing money, it had been Chandler who wanted it closed, and his father had reluctantly concurred. For the first time in five years, I felt like I wasnt a leper. Mrs. Chandler later achieved fame on her own by raising almost $20 million to finance the creation of the Music Center, a step that went a long way toward erasing the hick town image that Otis had long resented, and she was always keenly interested in the papers coverage of culture and society. Chandler pursued excellence in every aspect of his life, said Tom Johnson. While he was hunting in Mozambique in 1964, an elephant charged him, his wife and their guide. More than 15,000 readers canceled their subscriptions, and Chandlers breach with some members of his family was widened still further. But in 1968, the paper endorsed Democrat Alan Cranston for U.S. Senate over Republican Max Rafferty, whom it called an outspoken, militant conservative.. ADVERTISEMENT BY ANCESTRY.COM. 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. He died in 2002. He built a newspaper that was as great as the city it covers. He was featured on the cover of sporting magazines like Road & Track, Strength and Health, and Safari Club. [1], Chandler was an enthusiastic athlete and thrill seeker, an image he actively cultivated. Shaw, The Times longtime media critic, filed a draft of this obituary before his death Aug. 1. Elisha Graves Otis Print Family Tree Born 3 August 1811 - Halifax, Windham Co., VT Deceased 8 April 1861 - Yonkers, Westchester Co., NY,aged 49 years old Founder of the Otis Elevator Co. 1 file available Parents Stephen Otis 1773-1859 Phoebe Glynn 1778-1867 Spouses, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren They wanted to impeach Earl Warren, chief justice of the United States. Connect to 5,000+ Chandler profiles on Geni, Norman Chandler, Dorothy Chandler (born Buffum), Cause of death: Motor neuron disease, Dementia with Lewy bodies - Feb 27 2006 - Ojai, 1930 - Los Angeles (Districts 0001-0250), Los Angeles, California, USA, 1940 - 800 West Orange Grove, Arcadia, Manrovia Township, Los Angeles, California, USA, June 18 1951 - Los Angeles, California, United States, Feb 27 2006 - Meiners Oaks, Ventura, California, United States, Nov 23 1927 - Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States, Norman Chandler, Dorothy Chandler (geb. He sought largely solitary recreational activities throughout his adult life surfing, lifting weights, racing, cycling, hunting. By all accounts, the family enjoyed their outdoor experiences together, for Chandler focused on his children as intensely as he did on everything else that mattered in his life. Constance Chandler 1896-1962. Otis enthusiastically supported Michael's racing career until a near-fatal crash while qualifying at Indianapolis in 1984. The disease is known for its fast progression. 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. After leaving the Air Force in 1953, he had little direction for his career. Born in Los Angeles on Nov. 23, 1927, Chandler was the only son of Norman Chandler and Dorothy Buffum Chandler. [1], On a 1964 safari in Mozambique, an elephant charged his party. 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. Chandler retired as publisher in 1980 at the age of 52 to become chairman of Times Mirror, reducing his involvement in the day-to-day operations of the company. Nixon, by all accounts, was stunned by the turnabout. FOR THE RECORD:In an earlier version of this article, the date of the Helsinki Olympic Games was incorrectly given as 1948. I started work right away, on the graveyard shift, midnight to 8 in the morning. He was a pressroom apprentice, at $48 a week, the equivalent of $356 in todays dollars. His first year, he increased it 45%. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Otis Chandler. Unlike his father, however, he had not insisted that his children follow him into leadership positions at The Times. Norman Chandler (1899-1973), Publisher of the Los Angeles Times. 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. With Otis gone, the heat shield was gone, Johnson said. Such special issues were financial windfalls for the Times, generating a record $2 million in ad revenue. After a year or so in editorial, when I told my dad that Id just like to be a reporter, he said, no, I had to go on to other departments, Chandler said. Chandler had long felt that Willes hadnt shown enough respect for him and what he had accomplished. 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. Three years after that, he began construction on a 5,500-square-foot home in Ojai, about 30 minutes from his museum. Chandler was just then becoming interested in big game hunting, and his approach to hiring was much the same: only go after the biggest and the best. In one of their biggest coups, they brought in Robert J. Donovan, the Washington Bureau chief of the New York Herald-Tribune and one of the most respected journalists in the country, to be chief of the expanded Times bureau in the capital. The outdoors is my second home, my chapel, my retreat, my great love in life.. 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. Chandler knew and trusted Burke. Id work the graveyard shift for a week, then spend a week on days, then a week on the swing shift, then back to the graveyard shift, he recalled. He broke the freshman school record with a toss of 48 feet (15m), 761/47inches. [2], On his 23rd birthday, Chandler proposed to his college sweetheart, Marilyn Brant, on the seventh hole of the Pebble Beach golf course. At the age of 8, Chandler was thrown to the ground during a horseback riding lesson. A year later, he moved again. Respect and credibility for a newspaper is irreplaceable.. But he was hardly unaware of his familys powerful position. Chandlers wife, Bettina, was with him. [2] At Stanford he was a successful shot putter. 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.. Buff Chandler was the daughter of a prominent Long Beach family, owners of the successful Buffums department store. When he arrived at his parents' home with his wife and first child, his father presented him with credentials for a seven-year executive training program at The Times. His efforts led him directly into confrontation with a powerful force for the status quo: his own family. [1][2], After graduation, Chandler tried to enroll in an Air Force training program, but was turned down because he was too large to fit in the cockpit of a jet. Chandler, he said, loved being publisher. While in college, he sometimes worked summers at the paper, most often moving printing plates and other heavy equipment. We wouldnt be working here if it werent for him.. [1] Later, Chandler said his motivation to invest in The Times' quality could be attributed, at least in part, to his desire to combat the East Coast opinion that, "The Times was regarded as a bad newspaper from a hick town". 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. 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. He put in long hours, but he managed to have dinner with his family most nights, even if it meant doing more work at home after dinner. People who knew the Chandlers well say Otis first wife was enormously competitive. Chandler was raised to share his family's distaste for labor unions, a tradition that favored the family's financial interests. 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. Thats why we diversified the company and went into television and cable and forest products and books and medical and legal publishing.. [1] He hunted. Goodwin J. Knight. Sure, like any business executive, there were times when I would like to have been away from it all, free of responsibilities. I never understood how he could just opt out like that., But Chandler, asked often about his decision to leave, said: I gave 40 years of my life to The Times and Times Mirror. Chandler acknowledged that it was a difficult time for newspapers, but he disagreed vigorously with Willes approach. Three top editors asked Boyarsky not to read the statement aloud, fearing that it would further provoke an already enraged staff. Missy and I had had a good marriage, but we just werent getting along anymore in the last 10 years. But he also had a princes sense of entitlement, a sense that perhaps I dont have to do this every damn day, he added. 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. Chandler was honored with a Lifetime of Achievement award. 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 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. When photographed for the cover of the literary magazine Atlantic Monthly he was depicted on a surfboard crafted from newspapers across a wave of dollar bills. He was convinced that he had taken The Times about as far as he could, and he wanted more challenges and more freedom. LA Times After dropping out of Stanford, Chandler started working at the newspaper as a secretary to his father, Harry Chandler, who had been its publisher since 1917. 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. Chandler was the great-grandson of Gen. Harrison Gray Otis, the blustery Civil War veteran who bought part-ownership of The Times in 1882, a year after it began publication, and was its publisher for 35 years. That article deeply wounded some of the 160-odd descendants of Otis grandfather, family patriarch Harry Chandler. The stories described the Birchers extremist tactics and positions and, largely through their own words, depicted them as a threat to, rather than a defender of, the American way of life. For most of the first 80 years of its existence, the paper was such a journalistic laughingstock that humorist S.J. He attended Dartmouth College, and on a dare, he jumped into a vat of starch that had frozen over during winter, which led to severe pneumonia. But as one of the arena's 10 "founding partners", the paper had agreed to share the issue's ad revenue with the Staples Center without telling its reporters or readers about the fiscal arrangement. He was initially miserable; the other students all seemed richer, better-educated and more sophisticated. I dont butt in.. The corporate air was a little too rarified for him, said Swayze, his secretary. [2] In 1945, her husband became publisher of the Times, a position he held until he was succeeded by their son, Otis, in 1960. [1], Chandler was raised on a 10-acre (40,000m2) citrus ranch in Sierra Madre owned by his parents. "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.[1]. Typically, Chandler would offer gentle advice, Carroll said, but never try to dictate what the new management should do with the paper. Bureaus opened in Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, Hong Kong, Rome, Bonn, London, Vienna and San Francisco, at the United Nations and on Wall Street. After graduating from Stanford, he tried to enroll in an Air Force training program. But by 1962, The Times had become a different institution. In a cover story on Chandler in 1967, Newsweek said, In the six years since his father made him publisher of The Times, Chandler has staged one of the most remarkable palace revolutions in U.S. journalism. Recovery was slow but complete, and it was during that period of recuperation, Chandler said many years later, that he did a lot of thinking and somehow developed my competitiveness.. There Chandler spent much of his time alone, later in life unable to name a single childhood friend. Chandler later praised his editor for frequently reminding a young publisher that you cant change a whole paper overnight.. 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. 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.. Miserable ; the other students all seemed richer, better-educated and more freedom in. 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