Jerry D. Mead; Wine Columnist, Founder of Magazine

Jerry D. Mead, 60, wine columnist for three decades who judged competitions around the world. Mead became a connoisseur of wine while working in an entirely unrelated position--dispatcher for the Anaheim Fire Department. In 1971, he began a wine column at the Anaheim Bulletin that he went on to syndicate to more than a dozen newspapers. He also founded a magazine, the Wine Trader, published six times a year with, at the time of his death, a circulation of 85,000. He was a staunch advocate for consumers and often referred to himself as “the wine curmudgeon,” even abbreviating the nickname to TWC. Mead toured the world to judge wine contests and for the past eight years headed his own Jerry Mead’s New World International Wine Competition based in San Bernardino, which coordinators said will go on despite Mead’s death. On Wednesday in Carson City, Nev., of complications of cancer including liver and kidney failure and a heart attack.

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