Janet Chusmir; Executive Editor of Miami Herald

Miami Herald Executive Editor Janet Chusmir, a pioneering journalist who guided the newspaper to two Pulitzer Prizes, died Saturday of a brain aneurysm at age 60.

She collapsed Friday night at her home in Miami Beach and was rushed to St. Francis Hospital in a coma. She died Saturday morning without regaining consciousness, the Herald said.

The collapse came only about an hour after she left the Herald’s evening news meeting and stopped at desks to extend holiday wishes to reporters and editors.

“We have lost a great friend and a great editor,” said Herald Publisher David Lawrence. “What zest she had for good newspapers, what energy she had for caring, for worrying about what was right and fair for everyone. She set a wonderful example.”

Born in Boston, she graduated from Boston University in 1949 with a journalism degree.

After graduation, she married Leonard Chusmir, the college paper’s editor, and raised a family. Then in 1963, the family moved to Miami Beach, and she began working for $2.50 a story with the now-defunct Miami Beach Daily Sun.

Mrs. Chusmir was hired by the Herald in 1968 and soon had a regular column and a collection of awards for feature writing. By 1977 she worked her way up to assistant managing editor for features.

In 1982, the Herald’s parent company, Knight-Ridder Newspapers, named her publisher and president of the Boulder, Colo., Daily Camera, making her the organization’s first female chief executive.

Mrs. Chusmir returned to the Herald in 1987 as executive editor, the senior newsroom position. In 1988, the paper won two Pulitzers, one for commentary to Dave Barry for his humor columns, and one for feature photography to Michel DuCille for a photo essay on a Miami crack neighborhood.

In a “View From the Newsroom” column last year, she wrote that the newspaper business is “a sacred trust. We are our readers’ eyes and ears; we must be fair, accurate, sensitive and courageous. Courageous because we help to set the agenda and sometimes that is painful for all of us who live in this community.”

Last month, the National Press Foundation unanimously selected her as Editor of the Year for “transforming the Herald to serve the unique multicultural population of greater Miami.”

She is survived by her husband, Leonard; son, Steven; daughter, Marsha Chusmir-Shapiro, and grandson Matthew Shapiro.