Ron Rutti's obit of Woestendick is on cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- William Woestendiek, executive editor of The Plain Dealer in the 1980s, died today in Arizona.
Woestendiek, 89, was living in a nursing home outside Mesa, said a stepdaughter Maurita Thomas. His wife, Bonnie, lives in a different facility not far away.
Woestendiek came to The Plain Dealer as editorial page director in 1982. He had been executive director at the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson. The Plain Dealer at the time said it was going to expand its editorial page offerings to allow for more diverse viewpoints with the closing of the Cleveland Press.
The editorial pages were very opinionated and never boring under Woestendiek, with the pieces sometimes unleashing the fury of those it offended.
He hired, or helped get hired, several people from Arizona to newsroom positions at The Plain Dealer.
"Bill was a very good man to work for -- a no-nonsense, hard-nosed, strong-willed newspaperman with great instincts for a story," said Kevin O'Brien, the PD's current deputy editorial page editor, who often ruffles feathers in his column.
"When he thought he was right, he dug in his heels, and he expected the people who worked for him to do the same," said O'Brien, who arrived at the PD from Arizona. O'Brien said he is in debt to Woestendiek for determining his professional life.
In 1984, Woestendiek was named executive editor of the PD, and expanded the paper's investigative and in-depth reporting at a time when the industry still was heavily influenced by the national reporting of the Watergate scandal.
"A newspaper shouldn't be above its readership -- not aloof and arrogant," Woestendiek said during a City Club forum in 1983. "It should be opinionated, even outrageous, but it should be sensible, informative, controversial and above all, fair."
He left the PD and became director of the journalism school at the University of Southern California in 1988. He held that position until 1994.
The Arizona Daily Star won a Pulitzer Prize while Woestendiek was at its helm. Earlier, he was managing editor of the Houston Post when that paper was awarded a Pulitzer.
Funeral arrangements are incomplete. Other survivors include two sons, a daughter, and a step-daughter.
Plain Dealer news researcher Jo Ellen Corrigan contributed to this report.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- William Woestendiek, executive editor of The Plain Dealer in the 1980s, died today in Arizona.
Woestendiek, 89, was living in a nursing home outside Mesa, said a stepdaughter Maurita Thomas. His wife, Bonnie, lives in a different facility not far away.
Woestendiek came to The Plain Dealer as editorial page director in 1982. He had been executive director at the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson. The Plain Dealer at the time said it was going to expand its editorial page offerings to allow for more diverse viewpoints with the closing of the Cleveland Press.
The editorial pages were very opinionated and never boring under Woestendiek, with the pieces sometimes unleashing the fury of those it offended.
He hired, or helped get hired, several people from Arizona to newsroom positions at The Plain Dealer.
"Bill was a very good man to work for -- a no-nonsense, hard-nosed, strong-willed newspaperman with great instincts for a story," said Kevin O'Brien, the PD's current deputy editorial page editor, who often ruffles feathers in his column.
"When he thought he was right, he dug in his heels, and he expected the people who worked for him to do the same," said O'Brien, who arrived at the PD from Arizona. O'Brien said he is in debt to Woestendiek for determining his professional life.
In 1984, Woestendiek was named executive editor of the PD, and expanded the paper's investigative and in-depth reporting at a time when the industry still was heavily influenced by the national reporting of the Watergate scandal.
"A newspaper shouldn't be above its readership -- not aloof and arrogant," Woestendiek said during a City Club forum in 1983. "It should be opinionated, even outrageous, but it should be sensible, informative, controversial and above all, fair."
He left the PD and became director of the journalism school at the University of Southern California in 1988. He held that position until 1994.
The Arizona Daily Star won a Pulitzer Prize while Woestendiek was at its helm. Earlier, he was managing editor of the Houston Post when that paper was awarded a Pulitzer.
Funeral arrangements are incomplete. Other survivors include two sons, a daughter, and a step-daughter.
Plain Dealer news researcher Jo Ellen Corrigan contributed to this report.
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