Laurance Fowler, Longtime Daily News Editor, Dies at 88

Laurance “Larry” Fowler, a demanding but passionate newsman at the old Valley News and Greensheet for 23 years, has died at 88.

Fowler worked at the paper, the forerunner of the Daily News, from 1954 to 1977, when he retired as managing editor.

“He stressed accuracy and service to the public--all the good things a newspaperman ought to be,” said Daily News systems editor Richard Handt. “He lived for the paper. He was never happier than when we beat The Times.”

Mike Wyma, a Times assistant copy chief who worked with Fowler at the Daily News, remembered him as the unquestioned ruler of the newsroom.

“Anything remotely important had to go by him, and a line of editors and writers would form at his desk every night,” Wyma said. “The line moved slowly, because he always had suggestions. But they were invariably good, and somehow he made deadline.”

Hired as city editor in 1954, Fowler presided over the expansion of the paper’s coverage beyond the San Fernando Valley to Los Angeles City Hall and outlying valleys, said Rick Quist, Daily News executive news editor.

Frances Esther Fowler, 89, said her husband didn’t enjoy retirement.

“It just about killed him,” she said. “He wasn’t the same after that. He lost his love for life because he [couldn’t] be in the newspaper.”

A USC graduate, Fowler served as a lieutenant in the Army Air Corps during World War II, flying 34 missions over Germany, Frances Fowler said. After the war, the couple settled in Van Nuys. They were married 56 years.

Fowler died at a care facility in Canoga Park on Monday. He is also survived by a daughter, Patricia Bastiani, of Salt Lake City, and two grandsons.

Fowler requested no funeral services. Donations in his memory may be made to the Alzheimer’s Assn.