Dec. 13, 2010
OBITUARY: Dick Turpin, 1919-2010
At the Helm During Golden Age of Real Estate Reporting, Editing at Los Angeles Times
By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Real Estate Writer
I learned Sunday, Dec. 12 that my good friend Dick Turpin, 91, a 41-year veteran reporter and editor at the Los Angeles Times, died in his sleep Friday, Dec. 10, 2010 in a nursing home in Reseda, California, in the San Fernando Valley section of the city of Los Angeles.
(Link to LA times obit: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-dick-turpin-20101212,0,6073085.story)
I met Dick Turpin in late 1970 or early 1971 shortly after I was named Modern Living Editor, the title for real estate editor at The Milwaukee Sentinel, where I had been a reporter and editor for three years. I'm not sure, but I think I met Dick at the convention of the National Association of Realtors. (It could have been in early 1971 at the convention of the National Association of Home Builders).
Dick had been real estate editor at the L.A. Times for three years and generously helped me learn the ropes of real estate coverage. He also recruited me as a member of the National Association of Real Estate Editors (NAREE), an organization that had been founded in 1929 that we both treasured and served in all the elected offices. (Dick was president in 1972 and I served in that post in 1984).
We both had been named to a post we knew nothing about because our respective editors probably reasoned that we had no bad habits to overcome. I followed in the giant footsteps of David E. Link, while Dick Turpin was chosen by L.A. Times publisher Otis Chandler to create a legitimate news section from what had been essentially an advertising supplement.
On March 1, 1976 I joined the staff of the section Turpin had molded. My section had been honored with first place in the NAREE contest, much to the surprise of my competitor and fellow NAREE member Bill Manley at our sister paper, The Milwaukee Journal. By then Turpin's section was one of the most honored in the country. Dick had been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1961 when he was the education reporter at the paper and he was part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the 1965 Watts riots in L.A.
In my 44 years of journalism, I can't think of a more generous, gracious person than Dick Turpin. He was the ideal boss, never yelling or dressing down a reporter in full view of his/her colleagues. Everybody who worked under his supervision benefited from the wisdom and experience of a master and a true gentlemen. Dick was proud of his Armenian heritage, having been born in Turkey where the Ottoman Empire's persecution of Armenians during the early part of the 20th Century and World War I gave Adolf Hitler the idea for the Holocaust. He grew up in the Boston area and moved with his family to Los Angeles in 1936.
Dick enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1942 and mostly served in the Pacific theater, the theater of World War II chronicled in the HBO series "The Pacific." He never talked about the combat aspect, but entertained us with tales of training with tanks in Hawaii.
Seattle resident Rene Henry, a contributor to Huntington News Network and a veteran public relations practitioner in Los Angeles said of my friend, who retired in 1989:
"Dick Turpin was one of the icons of real estate editors in the U.S. With the help of outstanding people he recruited to work with him, he built the Los Angeles Times real estate section into the very best in the U.S. It had the most comprehensive coverage of news of all factors involving real estate. To public relations professionals he was always accessible and responsive. Most of all, he was a very personable and likable individual to be with."
To sum up, knowing and working with Dick Turpin made me a better person and a better reporter. I can't think of a higher compliment.
Editor's note: The photo accompanying this story was made by a Los Angeles Times photographer in 1989, the year Dick Turpin retired.
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OBITUARY: Dick Turpin, 1919-2010
At the Helm During Golden Age of Real Estate Reporting, Editing at Los Angeles Times
By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Real Estate Writer
I learned Sunday, Dec. 12 that my good friend Dick Turpin, 91, a 41-year veteran reporter and editor at the Los Angeles Times, died in his sleep Friday, Dec. 10, 2010 in a nursing home in Reseda, California, in the San Fernando Valley section of the city of Los Angeles.
(Link to LA times obit: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-dick-turpin-20101212,0,6073085.story)
I met Dick Turpin in late 1970 or early 1971 shortly after I was named Modern Living Editor, the title for real estate editor at The Milwaukee Sentinel, where I had been a reporter and editor for three years. I'm not sure, but I think I met Dick at the convention of the National Association of Realtors. (It could have been in early 1971 at the convention of the National Association of Home Builders).
Dick had been real estate editor at the L.A. Times for three years and generously helped me learn the ropes of real estate coverage. He also recruited me as a member of the National Association of Real Estate Editors (NAREE), an organization that had been founded in 1929 that we both treasured and served in all the elected offices. (Dick was president in 1972 and I served in that post in 1984).
We both had been named to a post we knew nothing about because our respective editors probably reasoned that we had no bad habits to overcome. I followed in the giant footsteps of David E. Link, while Dick Turpin was chosen by L.A. Times publisher Otis Chandler to create a legitimate news section from what had been essentially an advertising supplement.
On March 1, 1976 I joined the staff of the section Turpin had molded. My section had been honored with first place in the NAREE contest, much to the surprise of my competitor and fellow NAREE member Bill Manley at our sister paper, The Milwaukee Journal. By then Turpin's section was one of the most honored in the country. Dick had been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1961 when he was the education reporter at the paper and he was part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the 1965 Watts riots in L.A.
In my 44 years of journalism, I can't think of a more generous, gracious person than Dick Turpin. He was the ideal boss, never yelling or dressing down a reporter in full view of his/her colleagues. Everybody who worked under his supervision benefited from the wisdom and experience of a master and a true gentlemen. Dick was proud of his Armenian heritage, having been born in Turkey where the Ottoman Empire's persecution of Armenians during the early part of the 20th Century and World War I gave Adolf Hitler the idea for the Holocaust. He grew up in the Boston area and moved with his family to Los Angeles in 1936.
Dick enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1942 and mostly served in the Pacific theater, the theater of World War II chronicled in the HBO series "The Pacific." He never talked about the combat aspect, but entertained us with tales of training with tanks in Hawaii.
Seattle resident Rene Henry, a contributor to Huntington News Network and a veteran public relations practitioner in Los Angeles said of my friend, who retired in 1989:
"Dick Turpin was one of the icons of real estate editors in the U.S. With the help of outstanding people he recruited to work with him, he built the Los Angeles Times real estate section into the very best in the U.S. It had the most comprehensive coverage of news of all factors involving real estate. To public relations professionals he was always accessible and responsive. Most of all, he was a very personable and likable individual to be with."
To sum up, knowing and working with Dick Turpin made me a better person and a better reporter. I can't think of a higher compliment.
Editor's note: The photo accompanying this story was made by a Los Angeles Times photographer in 1989, the year Dick Turpin retired.
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