Otis Chandler Remembered at Memorial Service

By: PETER PRENGAMAN, Associated Press Writer (AP) Family, friends and colleagues remembered Otis Chandler as a fiercely competitive man who used hunter instincts to lift his family's Los Angeles Times from relative obscurity to the ranks of the nation's best newspapers.

Chandler, who presided over the Times as publisher and editor in chief during a period in which it won nine Pulitzer Prizes, died Feb. 27 at age 78.

"Chandler was taking our Pulitzers," former New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Sr. told the more than 500 mourners at a memorial service Monday. "He forced us to be better."

Chandler, who came from one of Los Angeles' most powerful families, succeeded his father as publisher in 1960. He stepped down in 1980 but remained as editor in chief for five more years. The family trust sold the paper to Tribune Co. in 2000.

"The best. No two words better describe him," said Tom Johnson, who succeeded Chandler as publisher and retired as chairman and chief executive of CNN News Group. "He excelled at almost everything he set out to do."

By hiring top reporters and editors and opening bureaus around the world, Chandler took a narrow and conservative paper and made it into an internationally respected publication within a few years.

Paul Conrad, a three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist, recalled that Chandler persuaded him to work for the Times in part by promising not to meddle with his drawings.

"He said, 'I never had a cartoon idea in my life, so I'll leave that up to you,'" Conrad recalled.

A longtime friend -- Louis D. Boccardi, retired chief executive of The Associated Press -- said he repeatedly encouraged Chandler to write a memoir, but that never happened.

"Maybe he understood that not everybody had to leave a book," Boccardi said. "You could, as he did, leave a newspaper and it would speak volumes."

Living with someone so intense and successful, however, wasn't always easy for Chandler's family.

"My father thought good parenting was setting good examples," said son Harry Chandler. "He was often too busy, or too self-absorbed to come to soccer games or get involved with career events."

But Harry Chandler said his father was always there when his children needed him, was able to apologize when he did wrong, and knew when his competitive spirit wouldn't be enough to win.

The son described a bird hunting outing with his father a few years ago when Chandler had a few uncharacteristic misfires. Weeks later, Harry Chandler said, his father decided to give him his gun collection _ gathered over years of big-game hunts around the world.

"When he couldn't be the best, he just wouldn't do it," he said.

Chandler's second wife, Bettina, said her husband would time himself during long bike rides, then try to beat his time the next day. "He had perfectionism in every cell of his body," she said.

Chandler's ashes have been spread at his favorite surf location. "He found God out in nature," she said.