Chester L. Shaw, 87; Retired Editor of Newsweek

Chester Lee Shaw, a journalist for five decades who served as executive editor of Newsweek magazine in the 1950s, has died after a long illness.

Shaw, who was 87, died Saturday, his son, Richard P. Shaw, said.

A native of St. Joseph, Mo., Shaw graduated from the University of Kansas in 1922 with a degree in journalism. He started his career as a reporter for the Journal-World in Lawrence, Kan.

Over the next decade he worked occasionally for the Associated Press as a free-lance reporter, and he later worked in the AP’s New York City bureau, his son said.

He worked in various capacities at the Kansas City Post, Christian Science Monitor, the now-defunct Literary Digest and the New York Times.

Shaw started work with Newsweek in the late 1930s and became managing editor during the early 1940s. He retired as executive editor in the late 1950s.

In 1959, he went back to work as executive director of Health News Institute. Shaw retired to Coral Gables, Fla., in 1962, and he moved to Winter Haven earlier this year.

He is survived by his wife, Julia, his son, four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.