George J. Cotliar, managing editor of the Los Angeles Times for 19 years, dies at 94
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Set us as preferred 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.Cotliar’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,” Cotliar-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 and then 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 schoo...