Former longtime Times executive, general counsel
Robert C. Lobdell, former vice president and general counsel for the Los Angeles Times and Times Mirror Co., died Monday at Stanford University Hospital from complications of a bacterial infection. He was 82.
Recognized as one of the nation’s leading 1st Amendment attorneys, Lobdell worked for The Times and Times Mirror, the newspaper’s former parent company, from 1965 to 1986.
“Bob exemplified the very best qualities in those chosen by Otis Chandler to serve in The Times’ senior management,” former Times Publisher Tom Johnson wrote in an e-mail to his former associates. “A mild-mannered, kind colleague, Bob fiercely supported The Times’ editors and journalists. He also protected us from more potential legal land mines than most of us know.”
Among his major media cases, Lobdell successfully argued that a newspaper had the right to control the content of advertisements it publishes. He also worked to get Times reporter Bill Farr freed in 1973 after spending 46 days in Los Angeles County jail for refusing to reveal to a judge his source in the Charles Manson murder case. And Lobdell won a landmark media case in 1982 brought by the Federal Trade Commission, which tried to stop the practice of media companies giving discounts to frequent advertisers.
Lobdell was most proud of his reputation as an advocate of hard-hitting journalism, despite the potential for litigation. “He didn’t even try to discourage a story because he knew it would be troublesome,” said William F. Thomas, editor of The Times from 1971 to 1989. “He had the admiration of everybody in the editorial department.”
Born in Mankato, Minn., in 1926, Lobdell moved with his family to Manhattan Beach in 1942 and spent his senior year at Redondo Union High School. He served in the Army Air Forces for two years and attended Stanford University, graduating in 1948, and Stanford University Law School on the GI Bill. Lobdell graduated with a law degree in 1950.
In 1952, Lobdell married Nancy Lower. They lived in Long Beach for more than 30 years and moved to Menlo Park, Calif., in 2004.
In addition to his wife of nearly 56 years, Lobdell is survived by four children, Jim of Portola Valley, Calif.; John of Sunset Beach, Hawaii; Terri of Palo Alto; and William of Costa Mesa, a reporter for The Times; and 11 grandchildren.
Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Palo Alto. Instead of flowers, donations can be made to the Orange County chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, 17872 Mitchell North, Suite 100, Irvine, CA 92614.
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