David Rosenzweig, 67; was an editor, reporter at The Times

David Rosenzweig, a former editor and writer at the Los Angeles Times who directed coverage of Southern California as the paper’s metropolitan editor and later served as assistant managing editor for investigations, died Wednesday. He was 67.

Rosenzweig, who had been battling cancer, died of pneumonia at this home in Santa Monica, said his wife, Lael Rubin.

Remembered as a tough-minded reporter, Rosenzweig covered some of the biggest stories in Southern California over the last 40 years, including the Hillside Strangler case, the Symbionese Liberation Army shootout and several police misconduct cases.

As an investigative reporter, he covered illegal pension fund loans by Las Vegas casinos.

Among the stories he oversaw as metropolitan editor were the 1985 listeriosis epidemic that caused 48 deaths and sickened hundreds, the Night Stalker serial murder case, and the McMartin Pre-School molestation case.

As an editor he was extremely diligent and sometimes prickly, but his objective, one colleague recalled, was to “make The Times as good as he could every day.” To that end -- and often to the annoyance of staff members -- he would call reporters at home late at night to double-check points in stories or ask new questions.

He made local news himself during the McMartin case when he revealed that he and Rubin, a deputy district attorney who was leading the prosecution, had become romantically involved.

Rosenzweig immediately recused himself from any role in the coverage of the case.

He and Rubin later married. She survives him along with two stepchildren, two grandchildren and a sister.

Born in Jersey City, N.J., Rosenzweig graduated from Rutgers University with a degree in history and studied political science at UC Berkeley.

His first job as a reporter was at the Newark Star Ledger in 1962. He worked at the Newark Evening News before joining the Associated Press in 1964. As an AP reporter he covered state politics in New Jersey and the United Nations before spending a year in Saigon covering the Vietnam War.

He joined The Times in 1971 as a staff writer and served in various editing roles from 1979 to 1983, when he was named metropolitan editor. He remained in that post until 1989, when he was named assistant managing editor for investigations.

Rosenzweig returned to reporting in 1993 to cover law and court issues. He had been covering the federal courts when he retired in December 2005.

“He was a terrific reporter,” said Bill Boyarsky, a former reporter, columnist and city editor at The Times. Boyarsky recalled that in the summer of 2000, Rosenzweig volunteered to help with street coverage of the Democratic National Convention in L.A. He was entering his fifth decade in the news business but was overjoyed to be working the streets with fellow reporters, many of whom were half his age.

“That showed his character as a journalist,” Boyarsky said.

Funeral services will be this morning at 10 a.m. at Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary in Los Angeles.

jon.thurber@latimes.com