Telford Work; Publisher of Daily Journal

Telford Work, whose journalism career began in World War I and ended with his retirement in 1977 when he was publisher of the Los Angeles Daily Journal, has died in Pacific Palisades, where he lived for 66 years.

He was 96 when he died Monday, said his son, Dr. Telford H. Work, a UCLA professor of infectious and tropical diseases.

The extent of his experience was evident in a letter he wrote The Times, scolding the paper for an omission in its 1981 centenary edition. Work--a third-year journalism student and editor-elect of USC’s Daily Trojan in 1917 when he entered the Army during World War I--was made editor of Trench and Camp, a weekly Army publication published by The Times and the YMCA as a public service.

He recalled in his letter how the paper proved a morale booster to soldiers who were stationed in Southern California and said the effort should not have been overlooked in a review of The Times’ first 100 years.

He later worked at papers in Central California, founded the first newspaper in Pacific Palisades, headed the California Newspaper Service Bureau--established in 1934 to help Los Angeles County papers attract legal advertising--and owned City News Service from 1941 to 1954.

In 1978, he was honored by the National Newspaper Assn. for his efforts in upgrading the quality of legal ads.

Besides his son, he is survived by a daughter, Margaret Jane Pollock, several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Another son, Robert Work, who followed his father as publisher of the Daily Journal, died in 1986.