Norman C. Miller, a former editor for the Los Angeles Times and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist known for his dedication to objective reporting, has died at age 90.
Miller died at his Pasadena home on March 29 after battling chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and congestive heart failure, according to his son Scott.
Miller, a devout Catholic, is survived by his children Charlie, Mary Ellen Wasson and Scott, as well as eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild. His wife, Mollie, and daughter Teresa died a few years ago.
Miller was born in Pittsburgh on Oct. 2, 1934. He attended Central Catholic High School and Pennsylvania University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism. Miller was inducted into the Hall of Fame at both his high school and university.
After college, Miller joined the Navy where he served for four years and became an officer.
While working for the Wall Street Journal in 1964, Miller won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the financial fraud scandal of commodities trader Tino De Angelis. His reporting on the scandal served as the foundation for the book “The Great Salad Oil Swindle,” published in 1965.
After working for the Wall Street Journal for 20 years, Miller moved to Pasadena and became the national editor for The Times. He retired from The Times after 14 years and became an adjunct professor at USC.
Members of The Times newsroom during his tenure remember Miller for his bluntness as an editor. Doyle McManus, a member of the national staff at the time, recalls Miller being a tough boss but a fair one.
“He was absolutely militant about sticking to the highest standards of objective reporting,” McManus said. “If you were investigating something and you were going to suggest that that person, whether it was a business executive or a politician, had engaged in any wrongdoing, you had to have those facts nailed down.”
Staff members joked that his militant approach to editing was a result of Miller’s time in the Navy, according to McManus.
Roger Smith, deputy editor at The Times during Miller’s tenure, remembers him as an editor devoted to bringing the readers the objective facts of any story produced during his time.
“[Miller] was a straight shooter, the very definition of it,” Smith said. “You knew where you stood with him at all times. He was devoted to making the stories that we produced as much of a straight-shooting operation as he himself was.”
Under Miller’s leadership, his colleagues remember producing tough investigative reporting of all the presidents they covered.
“[Miller] was quite a vigilant guardian of the traditional journalistic standards, and that was a good thing,” McManus said.
Miller remained a competitive opponent on the tennis court, where he played until he was 86.
Miller dutifully watched over his wife during her 12-year battle with Alzheimer’s.
“My dad took care of her every day through that 12-year battle,” Scott said. “To observe his love and compassion and tenderness, caring after his wife, was remarkable.”
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