Former Times Community News editor David Silva dies at 51
David Scott Silva, a journalist and author who was a former editor for Times Community News and an investigative writer for the Inland Empire Weekly, died of cancer on April 29 at his home in Riverside. He was 51.
Silva served as editor for several Southern California newspapers published by Times Community News, a division of the Los Angeles Times.
Between 1997 and 2004, he was city editor of the Burbank Leader, Glendale News-Press and Foothill Leader, and editor of the Rancho Cucamonga Voice and Claremont-Upland Voice.
In 2006, Silva joined the newly launched Inland Empire Weekly as a contributing writer. His investigative articles and opinion pieces covered such topics as Riverside’s use of eminent domain, the San Bernardino County foster care system and federal sweeps targeting illegal immigrants.
Silva grew up in Huntington Park and studied journalism at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa. He began his newspaper career reporting for the Huntington Beach Independent, the Daily Pilot and the Saddleback Valley Voice in Orange County.
In 1996, he moved back to the Los Angeles area and became a reporter for the Burbank Leader, where he covered City Hall and the local Airport Authority before assuming the city editor post.
Silva was interested in the human stories behind political and social issues and frequently spoke out for those who were treated unfairly. But he was equally at home writing humorously about his own life, family and experiences growing up in Huntington Park, which he did in a series of columns for Times Community News called “Inside/Out.”
Silva was also an avid science-fiction fan and wrote the sci-fi novel “After the Starman Flying,” published in 2015. In 2014, he published “Perfume River,” a poetry and art collection in collaboration with San Diego artist Brian Gonzalez.
Silva is survived by his wife, Sharon Burton; father, Luis Silva; sisters, Diana Correa, Linda Guevara, and Yvonne Caraballo; brothers, Michael Silva and Luis Silva, Jr.; nieces and nephews. His mother, Dolores Silva, died in January 2016.
His memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. on May 18 in the main chapel at Sandals Church, 150 Palmyrita Ave., Riverside.