MERCURY NEWS EDITOR BOB INGLE PASSES AWAY

 

San Jose, California Mercury News editor Bob Ingle, Mercury News executive editor and Knight Ridder vice president who launched America’s first news website in 1995, passed away Tuesday, March 16 in Sarasota, California. He was 81.

In May 1993, the Mercury News became one of the first U.S. newspapers to deliver breaking news and other content online, via its Mercury Center partnership with America Online. In early 1995, Mercury Center Web — the nation’s first news website — went live.

In his 38-year career with Knight Ridder, Ingle led the Mercury News to two Pulitzer Prizes —in 1986 for exposing Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos’ hidden wealth and in 1990 for coverage of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. He began his newspaper career in 1962 as a Miami Herald copy editor and advanced to managing editor. In 1981 he replaced Larry Jinks as the Mercury News executive editor until 1995.

The Mercury News got the Bill Farr Freedom of Information Award in 1989 for its battle to force authorities to reveal public information.  From 1988 to mid-1995, the Mercury News — under Ingle and then-managing editor Jerry Ceppos — went to court 61 times to open records, court proceedings or meetings that should have been public.

In 1995, he received the California Press Association’s Justus F. Craemer Newspaper Executive of the Year Award for leading the Mercury News to Pulitzer Prizes and for his “pioneering work in electronic media.”

The University of Iowa graduate and Sioux City, Iowa native delivered the Des Moines Register on his bike as a teenager.

Ingle is survived by his wife, Sandy Reed, of Saratoga; his daughter, Julie Ingle Valdez and two grandchildren, Utah and Wyatt Valdez, all of Castro Valley; and his brother-in-law, former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, now of Monument, Colorado.

Memorial service plans will be announced at a later date. The family suggests contributions in his memory may be made to the nonprofit Mercury News Wish Book fund.