San Diego journalist Neil Morgan dies at 89

Famed San Diego journalist Neil Morgan died Saturday at home in La Jolla, according to his wife, writer Judith Morgan. He died at age 89 after a long illness.

According to The Los Angeles Times, Morgan recorded San Diego’s transition into a large city after World War II. He absolutely loved San Diego, and if part of that love necessitated poking fun at scandals, Neil Morgan was game to do it.

He became editor of The San Diego Tribune in 1981. Before then, he had worked at the newspaper as a columnist, among other things. One popular series of columns in 1952 laid out how alleged mobster Frank Bompensiero bribed and conspired to get a liquor license in San Diego. The newspaper merged with the San Diego Union in 1992. In 2004, Morgan was forced out after 54 years at the paper for reasons that remain murky, according to the Voice of San Diego site, a nonprofit news site Morgan helped found after leaving the newspaper. As Tribune editor, Morgan emphasized mentoring younger reporters, scooping a news story and writing excellent features stories. In fact, while Morgan was head of the Tribune, the newspaper won a Pulitzer for editorial writing.

Morgan and his wife, Judith, co-wrote a biography of La Jolla’s Ted Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss. Morgan also wrote books on the Western United States as well as San Diego. Some of these books include The California Syndrome, Above San Diego and Westward Tilt. His human interest writing, including pieces on organized crime, netted him the Ernie Pyle award.

Morgan was the son of a North Carolina minister and civil rights activist. He shared his father’s commitment and love of liberal values. He moved to San Diego during World War II when he served as a Navy officer. He said that while he was a San Diegan one hundred percent, the fact he did not grow up there offered him the ability to see the region with an outsider’s perceptiveness.

Among his friends were Walter Cronkite and Andy Rooney.

Morgan’s wife said in an email to the Voice of San Diego staff that her husband did not want a funeral service. “He felt that this city and region had honored him abundantly over so many years. He loved San Diego and San Diegans very much — even when nagging us to do better, fly straighter, rise higher,” Judith Morgan’s email said.