Former 'San Diego Union' Publisher Helen Copley Dies

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(AP) Helen K. Copley, retired longtime publisher of The San Diego Union, has died. She was 81.

Copley died Wednesday of pneumonia in the aftermath of a stroke, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Copley, who began working at the paper as a secretary, was publisher of The San Diego Union-Tribune and its predecessors for nearly three decades. She took over after the 1973 death of her husband, James S. Copley. Upon her retirement in 2001, she handed over The Copley Press Inc. to her son, David C. Copley. The company was started in 1905 in Illinois by her father-in-law, Col. Ira C. Copley.

""Not only was she a great mom, but she was a great mentor, teacher and colleague,"" David Copley told the newspaper. ""As she did, I will proudly keep our newspapers going.""

Born Margaret Helen Kinney in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Copley served in the Navy WAVES and married in the 1940s. After the marriage ended, she moved with her mother to San Diego in 1951.

She was hired as one of three secretaries to James Copley, who had become chief executive officer in 1947 after his father's death.

Helen and Jim Copley married in 1965. Eight years later, he died of brain cancer.

She worked to keep the business in family hands. In the early 1990s, she merged the morning The San Diego Union and afternoon Tribune. The new edition first published on Feb. 2, 1992, and is the third-largest newspaper in California.

While she was publisher, her newspapers won two Pulitzer Prizes. She remained publisher emeritus of the newspaper and chairman emeritus of the company.

The Copley Press owns nine daily newspapers and other publications in California, Illinois and Ohio. It also operates the Union-Tribune's Web site, SignOnSanDiego.com.

Copley also was involved in philanthropy, helping secure a home for the San Diego Symphony and underwriting the library at the University of San Diego. She also was appointed as one of eight trustees to oversee the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a biomedical research and education organization that grew to have an endowment of $11.3 billion last year.

She was listed last year by Forbes magazine as 279th among the nation's richest Americans, with assets estimated at $960 million.

In addition to her son, survivors include a sister, Mary Frances Davison of Santa Maria; and a brother, Frank E. Kinney of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She also has two stepchildren from her husband's first marriage, Michael Copley of San Diego and Janice Obre of New York City.