Alden Clark Waite; Longtime Southland Newspaper Executive

Alden Clark Waite, 93, a retired newspaper executive who was former national president of Sigma Delta Chi, the society of professional journalists. Born in Santa Ana and educated at Pomona College, Waite worked for the San Pedro News Pilot and in 1930 co-founded and co-owned the Westwood Hills News-Press, for which he served as editor and publisher until 1937. He then began working for the Southern California Associated Newspapers group of several local newspapers, serving as chief editorial writer and editor of the Glendale News-Press and publisher of the Alhambra Post Advocate. In 1948, he became president of Copley Newspapers, which publishes the San Diego Union, among others. Over the 13 years until his retirement in 1961, Waite gained state and national stature as a news executive. Locally he served on advisory boards for the journalism programs at UCLA and the Claremont Colleges. Nationally, he worked his way up the chairs of Sigma Delta Chi, serving as treasurer and then winning election in 1954 as president. On Friday in Glendale.