Former Daily Pilot Editor Keevil Dies of Lung Disease

Mara Thomas Keevil, longtime editor of the Daily Pilot, died Thursday in Las Vegas, where he had served as editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal since 1981.

Keevil, 60, died of pulmonary fibrosis, a lung disease he contracted in the spring, according to Mary Hausch, managing editor of the Review-Journal. He had undergone triple bypass heart surgery in February, 1986, Hausch said.

Keevil was a founding member of the Orange County chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists/Sigma Delta Chi, serving as president in 1962 and 1971. He was the immediate past chairman of the Associated Press News Executive Council for California and Nevada and a member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

“Tom Keevil was a newspaperman’s newspaperman in the finest sense,” said Donald W. Reynolds, founder and chairman of the board of the Donrey Media Group, which owns the Review-Journal. “He was a well-known editor throughout California before he joined the Review-Journal and was virtually revered by his peers.”

A native of Versailles, Mo., Keevil earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri in 1951. He became editor of the Red Bud (Ill.) Pilgrim and in 1952 moved to California, serving as editor of the Beaumont Gazette in Riverside County and the Yucaipa News in San Bernardino County.

In 1945, he became editor of what was then the Costa Mesa Globe-Herald, a 1,500-circulation weekly. Under his leadership, the paper became the Daily Pilot, covering cities from Huntington Beach to San Clemente.

“Tom Keevil was one of the most thoroughly professional and dedicated newspapermen it was my privilege to work with,” said Robert N. Weed, former publisher of the Pilot.

According to Weed, Keevil was “an exceptionally talented editor” who “truly enjoyed the daily challenge of trying to give his readers a better grasp of their community and their world.”

Survivors include his wife, Claire, of Las Vegas; two daughters, Katherine Essick of Eugene, Ore., and Constance Quinley of Anchorage, Alaska; two sisters; two granddaughters, and a stepson.

A memorial service is scheduled at 4 p.m. Saturday at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.