Jere Witter, 79; Writer, Reporter for Various Southland TV Stations

Jere Witter, 79, a longtime television news writer and reporter in Southern California, died Saturday of complications from cancer at his home in Fountain Valley, according to his daughter, Ann Witter Cates.

Witter began his career in television in 1955 as a news writer at KPIX-TV Channel 5 in San Francisco and eventually became the station’s news director. He moved to Los Angeles in 1962 and went to work at KNXT-TV Channel 2, now KCBS-TV, as a writer for “The Big News,” the groundbreaking, hourlong, evening newscast presided over by Jerry Dunphy.

Witter also appeared on camera in the newscast’s “Observer at Large” segment. On Sunday mornings he was the host of KNXT’s public affairs program “Viewpoint.”

Witter left “The Big News” to become the sole writer for “Ralph Story’s Los Angeles,” an early magazine-style show by the popular newsman, which was also on KNXT.

Witter stayed with the CBS affiliate through the mid-1970s. He was later an on-camera reporter and writer for KOCE-TV, Orange County’s public television station.

He also wrote for KHJ-TV Channel 9, now KCAL-TV, and KNBC-TV Channel 4 and contributed some op-ed pieces to The Times’ Orange County edition.

After leaving journalism, he worked as a field investigator for the Orange County Legal Aid Society, specializing in cases involving the homeless and illegal immigrants.

Witter was born in Evanston, Ill., and graduated from Beverly Hills High School. He served as a pilot in the Navy during World War II and earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism at UC Berkeley. He started his newspaper career as a copy boy at the San Francisco Chronicle.