Otis Chandler

Otis Chandler (November 23 1927–February 27 2006) was best known as the publisher of the Los Angeles Times between 1960 and 1980. His family had owned the newspaper since Harrison Gray Otis founded the company in 1882. 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.

Chandler attended his parents' alma mater, Stanford University where he was a world-class shot putter; only a sprained wrist kept him from competing for the United States in the 1948 Summer Olympics.

In 1960, he became publisher of the Los Angeles Times. He quickly increased the budget of the paper allowing it to expand its coverage. This coincided with the shift of the paper from a conservative to a "progressive" publication.

In 1966 Chandler received the Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award as well as an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Colby College.

David Halberstam wrote in his 1979 book The Powers That Be: "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."

In 1980, he became chairman of Times Mirror and reduced his involvement in the day-to-day operations of the company. He handed control to people outside the family in the mid-1980s and became involved in other interests such as the Chandler Vintage Museum of Transportation and Wildlife, which he founded in Oxnard, California in 1987 and was rarely open to the public. His son Mike was a race car driver in the CART Championship Car series, against Otis' wishes.

In the late 1990s, he became critical of a perceived decline in the Times. He was not involved in negotiations by other members of the Chandler family for the sale of the Times to the Tribune Company but welcomed the outcome.

He died of Lewy body disease at age 78.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Shaw, David, and Mitchell Landsberg. L.A. Icon Otis Chandler Dies at 78. Los Angeles Times (February 27, 2006). Retrieved July 9, 2008.
• "Otis Chandler" Contemporary Authors Online. The Gale Group, 2001. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale.
• Pease, Theresa. Ahead of the Times Andover Bulletin Online 93(4) (Summer 2000). Retrieved July 9, 2008.

External links

• Chandler Vintage Museum of Transportation.
• Otis Chandler, 78; transformed L.A. Times into a leading paper. The Boston Globe.
• Otis Chandler, Publisher Who Transformed Los Angeles Times, Dies at 78. New York Times.
• Former 'L.A. Times' publisher Otis Chandler dies at 78 USA Today.

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