George J. Cotliar, who served as managing editor of the L.A. Times for 19 years during a 40-year career at the paper, has died.
Cotlier’s daughter, Sharon Cotliar-Zweifach, confirmed that Cotliar died in his sleep early Monday at his home in Newport Beach. He was 94.
“Our dad’s first love was journalism, and as much as he was an incredible, dedicated father, we very much knew we were growing up with a newspaper man,” Zweifach told The Times on Wednesday. “He set the bar high in terms of honesty, integrity and treating people with respect. We understood that’s how he operated — in his work and with his colleagues and with us.”
George Cotliar was born Jan. 16, 1932, in the Bronx to Russian immigrants. When he was 5, his family moved to Los Angeles and settled into what he liked to joke was the “slums of Beverly Hills.” He attended Beverly Hills High School, Los Angeles City College and, ultimately, Cal State Los Angeles, where he earned a degree in journalism.
After working at an assortment of local papers around Los Angeles, Cotliar caught wind that The Times had an opening. He took a $13-a-week pay cut to get his foot in the door and one step closer to the goal he’d set for himself while working a newspaper route at 11 years old: to run the Los Angeles Times.
He was hired as a reporter for the Westside section and promoted a year later to editor of The Times’ suburban section; after another year, he took on a copy editor role before becoming a copy chief, then became editor of special sections at the paper. He worked assignments in the Metro and National departments, spent two years as managing editor of The Times’ Orange County edition, and after 21 years of becoming well acquainted with myriad roles at the paper, he nabbed the title he’d been working toward since grade school — managing editor.
Under his watch, the paper’s coverage won 10 Pulitzer Prizes and numerous other accolades.
“He was a terrific manager devoted to the readers of the paper, specifically in how the paper presented the news on Page 1,” former Times National Editor Roger Smith said on Tuesday. “He was always striving for the best stories and the best balance possible every day, and when I say every day, I mean every day. He was an L.A. person. He knew the city and he knew the county.”
As notorious as Cotliar was for his accurate calls on election night, his impressive memory, devotion to journalism and love for college basketball and the Los Angeles Times, he was also known around the newsroom for his occasional near-slapstick temper. Whether it was calling the mayor an “a—” when he thought he’d been hung up on or slamming the return key of his typewriter so hard that it flew off, there was never a dull moment with Cotliar at the helm.
Cotliar was married to Pearl Ruth Gottlieb on Aug. 24, 1958. She died in December of 2011.
He is survived by his son, David Cotliar, and his spouse, Kenneth Wang, and his daughter, Sharon Cotliar-Zweifach, and her spouse, Dr. Eric Zweifach, and two grandchildren, Abigail Zweifach-Coles, and Joshua Zweifach.
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