The International Press Institute (IPI) this week remembered former IPI Executive Board Chair David Laventhol, who died on April 8 at his home in New York due to complications from Parkinson’s disease.

Laventhol, 81, was a long-time IPI member whose career in journalism included high-profile roles as assistant managing editor of The Washington Post, president of the Times-Mirror Corp. and publisher of Newsday and the Los Angeles Times.

He was an active promoter of press freedom, serving on IPI’s Executive Board from 1987 to 1995, including the last two years as chair, and as the publisher and editor of IPI’s former quarterly magazine, the IPI Report, from 1995 to 1998. He was named an IPI Fellow in 1996.

Alvin Shuster, a former foreign editor at the Los Angeles Times and also an IPI Fellow, said that “From the day I met David, it was clear that he was a man for all jobs in the wonderful world of journalism”.

Shuster explained: “He left his mark on every endeavour, every newspaper, every magazine, every board of directors and every newsroom he touched. He was a major force at The Washington Post, Newsday and the Los Angeles Times, and later in his career, he was ready for the challenge as IPI Chair.

“One goal was to develop IPI Report into a first class publication covering global press issues. He asked me to work with him on the project and I could see again how his mind worked. It was another success for David’s amazing resume. He was truly a great friend, colleague and, of course, journalist.”

Among his many achievements, Laventhol also served a member of the Pulitzer Prize board, including as its chair; as publisher and editor of The Columbia Journalism Review; and as chair of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

“David was a brilliant journalist who commanded the respect of journalists, but he was also a calm, kind, wise man, a healing influence in an era where IPI personal tensions occasionally ran high,” former IPI Executive Board Chair Peter Preston said. “People behaved well when they sat beside him. People talked rationally when he was in the chair. David loved journalism, but he earned the love of journalists in return.”

Born in Philadelphia in 1933, Laventhol was the son of a reporter and he edited his school high school newspaper and later worked at The Yale Daily News. Following two years in the Army, he graduated from Yale in 1957 and joined the St. Petersburg Times as a beat reporter. He became the paper’s national news editor in 1960, after receiving a master’s degree from the University of Minnesota, and he later worked for the New York Herald Tribune before joining The Washington Post in 1966.

While at the Post, he remade the paper’s Style section and he was soon hired by Newsday, where he became executive editor in 1970. The paper ultimately garnered four Pulitzer Prizes under Laventhol’s leadership, but colleagues have said his proudest achievement was launching the Long Island-based paper’s New York edition, New York Newsday.

In 1978, Laventhol became Newsday’s publisher and CEO, and he began to rise to the top of the paper’s owner, the Times-Mirror Corp., becoming president in 1987. In 1989, he became publisher of the Los Angeles Times, overseeing a period of expansion for the paper prior to his retirement in 1994 due to health concerns.

Former IPI Executive Board Vice Chair Simon Li, who was a deputy foreign editor* of the Los Angeles Times under Laventhol, said of the publisher that “I and my colleagues were grateful that he balanced the needs of journalism with the demands of business”.

Li, who went on to become the paper’s assistant managing editor, continued: “A distinguished editor at other papers before he arrived at the Times, he understood journalism, unlike some other publishers. And although he was also busy as president of Times-Mirror Co. which owned the Times, several other papers, magazines and book publishing houses, he was a great supporter and creative leader of IPI and its mission.”

Laventhol is survived by his wife, Esther, and by his children, Sarah Laventhol and Peter Laventhol.

*This statement was corrected on Aptil 19, 2015.