Monday, February 16, 2004 5:56 PM
BY BOB BAKER
Frank del Olmo, a Los Angeles Times associate editor and columnist who became an icon to Latino journalists during nearly 34 years at the newspaper, died of an apparent heart attack at his desk on Feb. 19. He was 55.
Del Olmo was a quiet, intellectual journal- ist who carried on the mantle of a more flamboyant crusader of an earlier era, Times columnist Ruben Salazar. But he had a greater impact because of the decades he served as a reporter,editor and columnist. Raised in Los Angeles,del Olmo spanned a half-century in which Latinos rose from discrimination and invisibility to the leading demographic group in the region. His ability to bring historical and social perspective to his writing made him one of the most insightful Latino journalists in the world.
Del Olmo graduated from Cal State Northridge, accepted an internship at the Times, turned it into a full-time job, was pro- moted to foreign correspondent and, eventual- ly, the highest-ranking Latino at the Times as
assistant to the editor. In 1984, he helped guide the paper’s series, “Southern California’s Latino Community,” which won the Pulitzer Prize for meritorious public service. In 1998, he was selected to lead the Latino Initiative, a newspaper-wide effort to increase and improve coverage of Southern California’s largest minority group.
At memorial services, friends praised him as a man who helped launch myriad careers, and who also touched readers deeply in recent years by reporting annually on the progress of his autistic son,
Frankie.
“We’ll remember Frank del Olmo always for his commit- ment to future journalists,” Felix Gutierrez, a visiting pro- fessor of journalism at USC and a longtime friend, told mourners at del Olmo’s funeral. “He may have been the first Latino to ascend to the height of American journal-
ism, but he will not be last.” Contributions are welcomed to the Frank del Olmo Memorial Scholarship Fund at the California Chicano News Media Assn., 3800 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90037; or the Cure Autism Now Foundation, 5455 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 715, Los Angeles, CA
