Edward Seaton, 79, chairman of the board of Seaton Publications, former publisher of The Manhattan Mercury and champion of press freedom throughout the Americas, has died.
Seaton was at his home in Manhattan. He died Monday night of natural causes, according to his son, Ned.
Ed was born Feb. 5, 1943, in Manhattan to Mary (Holton) and Richard Melvin Seaton.
Seaton was born into a newspaper family. His grandfather, Fay Seaton, bought The Mercury in 1915. Fay’s sons, Fred and Richard, became involved in newspapers and led the family media operations. Then Richard’s sons, Edward and David, became publishers. And Edward’s sons, Ned and Jay, followed in his footsteps.
Edward Seaton earned a bachelor’s degree with honors at Harvard College in 1965 and was a Fulbright scholar at Universidad Central in Quito, Ecuador. He also did graduate work in journalism at the University of Missouri.
He began his journalism career as a reporter and copy editor at the Louisville (Kentucky) Courier-Journal.
