Ron Kaye, Former LA Daily News Editor, Dies at 83

Former L.A. Daily News editor Ron Kaye has died, according to a post from his son on social media. He was 83 years old and passed away Thursday night.

“I am writing to share some painful news: my father Ron Kaye passed away last night suddenly at home with my mother Deborah,” his son Alfred wrote in a personal remembrance of his father shared on Facebook on Friday .

“Many of you will have known Ron as a crusading and polemical journalist, a mentor, a neighbor — or perhaps as a friend,” Alfred continued. “Every parent is a larger than life figure to their children. But Ron was a 1 of 1: a muckraking journalist, an independent thinker, a warm and emotionally connected father and grandfather, an intellectual and a believer in the Dionysian spirit in life. He enjoyed life to the last, celebrating my birthday with me this weekend over omakase sushi and sake, and having his grandchildren over after summer camp on Tuesday.”

Kaye spent 23 years at the Daily News before being let go in 2008, though the paper publicly framed it as a resignation . The paper noted at the time, “During his tenure at the Daily News, Kaye became the public face of the newspaper, and his bombastic personality and scathing criticism of Los Angeles City Hall shaped the editorial pages of the paper.”

“During this period, he saw many of the forces of social and political decay at work that have recently damaged our politics,” Alfred wrote. “Within the microcosm of Los Angeles, he sought to find a balance between those forces, pushing forward coverage of major issues such as police violence towards Rodney King as well as advocating for the interests of the ‘everyman’ of the San Fernando Valley.”

The Daily News was also where he met his wife Deborah, who Alfred noted his father described as “the love of his life.” Following his retirement, Kaye continued to write about politics online through a blog (formerly hosted at RonKayeLA.com), calling himself a citizen journalist as he continued his critiques of public officials.

He also took on his former employers, including a scathing 2009 critique of departing L.A. News Group executive Ed Moss, who had been the paper’s third publisher in 18 months . Kaye described him at the time as an “empty suit” who had “sucked the spirit out of the paper and left it to die.”

“I’d been fired before but never by someone who had to fly in a surrogate from out of town to do it,” Kaye noted.

As he’d worked to save the paper, he’d employed a strategy he called “more cowbell,” a tribute to the famed Will Ferrell-led “Saturday Night Live” sketch. As his colleague Julia Scott wrote in a tribute to Kaye upon his exit, “He asked us to innovate and try new things, to be disruptive like the cowbell-playing musician Ferrell plays.” She continued, “Who knows, maybe we would figure out how to make the newspaper profitable. If we effed up, at least we tried. Ron called the strategy ‘more cowbell’ and would lurch through the newsroom shouting this slogan while banging on a metal cowbell.”

When he left the Daily News, he wrote to his colleagues , “All good things in life come to an end sooner or later, even my love affair with the Daily News. What will always be with me is my love and respect for all of you.” He voiced his support and encouragement for his colleagues as they worked to keep the newspaper alive in the digital age. “I know it can be done and I wish you all the best in whatever you do, wherever the road leads you. Thanks for everything, these have been the happiest and most fulfilling years of my life.”

Discussing Kaye’s political fervor, his son wrote, “He could be too passionate at times — we warned guests not to bring up Trump, self-driving cars or JFK, and joked about his ‘RONting.’ He always had a sense of humor about this and embraced the character he had developed; he studied improv in his late 70s, and appeared in local plays in his 80s.”

The Jewish journalist grew up in the Cleveland suburbs before attending the University of Chicago and studying anthropology. “He bragged of graduating with the lowest GPA possible,” Alfred wryly noted.

Kaye began in journalism at the Cleveland Plain Dealer before being drafted to the Army and serving during Vietnam in Alaska. He worked for small papers in Fairbanks and Yakima before moving on to the Associated Press and Newsweek, eventually ending up in Los Angeles.

The journalist was a labor leader, including leading a strike against Rupert Murdoch newspaper The Australian.

“He liked to say that he had never quit a job, but had been fired many times,” Alfred added.

Alfred further noted his father’s love for the people he worked with and mentored, writing that he “still talked about their current careers and trajectories with pride until his passing.”

Among Kaye’s hobbies that may be surprising to some for a man of his age: video games. “He was an obsessive gamer,” his son shared, adding that “one month he had the highest Tetris score in Nintendo Power magazine, and he was playing bridge and NYTimes spelling bee in the final months of his life.”

The family asks that anyone moved to make a monetary donation on his behalf do so by donating to the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz campaign, noting, “He was passionate about the dangers of authoritarian leaders and would want that.” They plan to sit shiva for him at his home this Sunday in Orange, Connecticut, with a Celebration of Life set to be organized at a later date and details to be shared at that time.

Kaye is survived by his wife Deborah, son Alfred and grandchildren Dash and Theo.

The post Ron Kaye, Former LA Daily News Editor, Dies at 83 appeared first on TheWrap .