Major James ‘Jim’ Dean; Former Register Editor
Major James “Jim” Dean, executive editor of the Orange County Register through the 1970s, died last week in Newport Beach of respiratory failure. He was 74.
The native Texan arrived at the then-Santa Ana Register in 1962 as a news editor after starting out in 1946 as a police reporter at the Tyler (Texas) Courier-Times and working at the Houston Chronicle, the Pampa (Texas) Daily News and the Lima (Ohio) News.
Dean was a strong, hands-on presence in the Register newsroom after becoming executive editor in 1971, and continued to contribute columns to the paper’s opinion page after his 1981 retirement.
He also spent his retirement years contributing to the Balboa Bay Club’s Window magazine and starting a newsletter, the Sea Breeze, for his neighbors in Bayside Village in Newport Beach.
Dean is survived by his wife of 51 years, Vida; their children, Major “Jim” Jr., Vicki Hernandez and David; and eight grandchildren. No funeral services are scheduled.
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