Ex-Publisher Judith Brown Dies

By: (AP) Judith W. Brown, former editor and publisher of The Herald of New Britain and a 50-year veteran of the newspaper, has died at age 72.

Brown, who died Wednesday at her home in Kensington after a long battle with cancer, was editor and publisher emerita of the newspaper, which was led by her family for three generations.

A member of The Associated Press board of directors since 1994, she also was the first woman president of the New England Society of Newspaper Editors.

"Judy cared deeply about The Associated Press and we will miss that concern and support," said AP President and CEO Louis D. Boccardi. "Whatever the subject under board review, you could count on Judy to ask, 'What does this mean to the members and to the staff?'"

Brown became editor of the newspaper in 1969 and publisher in 1977 following the death of her father, Gardner C. Weld. He was president of the Herald Publishing Co.; her mother, Agnes Vance Weld, was editor emerita and publisher.

Brown began her career at the newspaper as a reporter after graduating Mount Holyoke College in 1951.

It was assumed Brown would cover society news, but she had other ideas. She instead covered the teacher's college in New Britain and speeches at the all-male luncheon service clubs.

She almost didn't get the chance to work at the newspaper. While in college, she asked her uncle, Johnstone Vance, for a job.

"He said, 'Ah, it's so boring in the summer; nothing goes on. I don't want you to be bored,' so he didn't give me a job," she recalled six years ago.

Brown considered her most important story the purchase of four Thomas Hart Benton murals in 1953 by the New Britain Museum of American Art.

Among her honors were the 1979 Yankee Quill Award from the New England Academy of Journalism for outstanding contributions to journalism.

The Herald, first published as a weekly in 1880, became a daily newspaper in 1881. In 1887, The Herald Publishing Co. was incorporated by Robert J. Vance, Brown's grandfather.

The newspaper was sold to the Trenton, N.J.-based Journal Register Co. in 1995.

"It's wrenching, yes," Brown said at the time of the sale. "The newspaper's been the other child in the family for all of my life, so it's kind of like a bereavement in a sense."

Brown is survived by her husband, Roderick, daughters Amy, Heather and Christabel, son Vance and several grandchildren.