PORTLAND, Ore. — Fred Stickel, who turned The Oregonian into one of the country’s best regional newspapers during his long stint as its publisher, has died.
The Oregonian reported the death Sunday. The paper won five Pulitzer Prizes during Stickel’s 34-year tenure, which ended with his retirement in 2009. He also hired the newspaper’s first African-American editor and later hired its first female editor.
“I miss him,” said Patrick Stickel, who worked under his father at the newspaper for 22 years. “I loved working for him. He was my father, my boss and my best friend.”
Stickel joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1942and served in World War II. After the war, he sold newspaper advertising at The Jersey Journal, in Hoboken. He went to work for the Newhouse newspaper chain in 1951.
The company moved Stickel and his family to Portland in 1967 so he could serve as general manager of The Oregonian. He became president five years later and publisher in 1975.
In 1982, Stickel closed the city’s afternoon paper, the Oregon Journal, and folded its staff into The Oregonian. By 1990, more than half of the families in the Portland metropolitan area were subscribers, and advertising was thriving.
He hired Sandy Rowe as editor in 1993 and gave her the OK to expand the newsroom staff, setting the stage for the paper’s run of Pulitzer-winning efforts.
“Fred Stickel was a great publisher during four decades when the community relied on printed newspapers and the business success allowed investment in them,” Rowe said.
“Most important for the employees of The Oregonian, Fred was the glue that made us family,” she said. “Fred Stickel treated each one of us with utmost respect and concern. He was a tough Marine with a big heart.”
Stickel is survived by six children. His wife, the former Margaret Ann “Peggy” Dunne, died in 2008.
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