James Fang, a member of the family that published Asian Week, the San Francisco Independent and, briefly, the San Francisco Examiner, has died at the age of 58. SF Chronicle | KQED | SF Examiner
Patricia Yollin, a writer of extraordinary talent whose articles graced the pages of The Daily Review in Hayward, the San Francisco Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle, has died of cancer at 69. Ms. Yollin, who also was an online news editor for KQED, had an eye for the unusual, an instinct for interviewing and a flair with the written word. SF Chronicle | KQED | Mediaworkers.org
Jerry Adams, a city planning writer for the San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Chronicle, has died. He was 92. Mr. Adams had an encyclopedic knowledge of the city and the city planning bureaucracy. SF Chronicle | Legacy.com
The East Bay writer and editor Roberta Alexander has died at 76 after a long illness. After her retirement in 2007, she continued to write for the East Bay Times and The Mercury News. East Bay Times
Lee Guittar, a newspaper executive, athlete and pilot, has died. He was 88. In the 1990s he was publisher of the San Francisco Examiner, then owned by the Hearst Corp. SF Chronicle |
Susan Subtle, a veteran of New West Magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle who had a spot on KGO-TV’s AM San Francisco, has died at 78 after a stroke. SF Chronicle | susansubtle.com
Mal Sharpe, whose comical man-on-the-street pranks with Jim Coyle were classics on KGO, died at 83. San Francisco Chronicle | New York Times
Jon Thackeray, a lawyer who counseled the Hearst Corp. on the company’s purchase of the San Francisco Chronicle and sale of the San Francisco Examiner, has died. He was 83. Connecticut Post | Legacy.com
Joseph Bartletta, a reporter, lawyer, and newspaper executive, has died of natural causes at 83. Among other significant posts, he was president and chief executive officer of the San Francisco Newspaper Agency, which at one time was publisher of the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner. Legacy.com
The former San Francisco Chronicle arts critic Marilyn Tucker has died at the age of 89. Joshua Kosman, the paper’s music critic, wrote that Ms. Tucker’s “lively, informed writing about classical music and dance filled the pages of The Chronicle for three decades.” SF Chronicle
Mike Bigelow, a onetime reporter and city editor at the Redding Record-Searchlight and later a wire service editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, has died. Legacy.com
Les Mahler, a longtime journalist with the San Jose Mercury News, has died at the age of 69. The author of children’s books, he also founded the charitable group “Stomp Out Kids Cancer.” In a personal reflection, Media Museum member Kevin Wing remembered him as “a bulldog of a newspaper reporter” who could “tell a story like nobody’s business.” Kevin Wing | East Bay Times
Dick Robertson, whose Northern California television career led him from KTVU to KRON to KQED over a half century, has died at 93 after a long illness.
Bob Stephens, a longtime movie critic for the Hearst-owned San Francisco Examiner, has died at the age of 81. Recognizing the potential popularity of the emerging home theater technology, he created the weekly “Lasermania” column. San Francisco Chronicle
Gary “Gaz” Regan, a former San Francisco Chronicle columnist and reknowned bartender, has died at 68. SF Chronicle | The Spirits Businesss | Imbibe
Former San Francisco Giants broadcaster and longtime Major League baseball player Ron Fairly has died at 81. Fairly announced Giants games from 1987 through 1992. SF Chronicle
Marilyn Tucker, a longtime arts critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and herself an artistic talent, has died at 89. SF Chronicle
Carl Irving, a veteran reporter for the Woodland Democrat, Washington Evening Star, Oakland Tribune and San Francisco Examiner, has died at 91. SF Chronicle
Gary Bogue, a beloved columnist for the Contra Costa Times whose pets and wildlife knowledge astonished, entertained and educated readers, has died at the age of 81. SF Chronicle | Mercury News
Lorne Morrison, an ABC-7 video journalist and veteran of covering San Francisco’s City Hall and Hall of Justice, has died at 71. His passing brought condolences from police and journalists around the Bay. ABC-7 | SFGate.com
K. Connie Kang, a veteran of the San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times who later became a minister, has died at 76 of cancer. She was thought to be the first woman Korean reporter in the United States.
The writer, satirist and prankster Paul Krassner, branded the “father of the underground press” by People magazine, has died at 87 in Desert Hot Springs.
Allan Ulrich, a dance and classical music critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and, before that, the San Francisco Examiner, has died at 78. Ulrich was described by Chronicle music critic Joshua Kosman as “a cultural omnivore, a devotee of ballet, opera, modern dance, film, literature, visual arts and just about everything in between.”
A broadcaster for more than a half century and a voice of the San Francisco 49ers football team, Bob Fouts has died at 97. He also called baseball and basketball and was a sports anchor on Bay Area radio and television.
Don Klein, the Bay Area sports announcer best remembered for his call of “The Catch” as 49ers football receiver Dwight Clark grabbed a Joe Montana pass, has died at 95.
Jim Dunbar, a pioneer in what became known as newstalk, has died. He was 89. Dunbar was so popular and well regarded that he “changed the Bay Area radio landscape by helping turn KGO from an also-ran into the greatest powerhouse on the dial,” said journalist and author Ben Fong-Torres.
Ed Arnow, an accomplished reporter, anchor and foreign correspondent who worked at KGO and KRON, has died at the age of 95.
Former San Francisco Chronicle entertainment editor Bob Graham has died at the age of 80. Chronicle film critic Mick LaSalle remembers him with this appreciation.
Robert Aguilar, a onetime advertising executive for multiple newspapers, including the Salinas Californian, has died in Texas at the age of 75.
Jacque Skarr, a radio veteran at stations including K101, KKIQ, KSAN and KNEW, has died.
Charles Cooper, a former editor for the San Francisco Examiner and Hayward Daily Review, has died at the age of 76. “Coop,” as his colleagues called him, was known to be unflappable, calm in the midst of high-pressure deadlines.
A onetime Bay Area resident who sold ink to the San Francisco Examiner, Oakland Tribune and Fresno Bee has died at the age of 95. Edward J. Dougherty later went on to become a harness racing executive, president of the Harness Tracks of America.
Bob Hirschfeld, a veteran of KTVU-TV, multiple Bay Area radio stations and Time magazine, has died at 71. He also served as a public information officers for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Sylvia Chase, an ABC anchor whose departure for KRON-TV was itself news, has died at the age of 80. 
After five years at KRON the well-regarded journalist returned to the network in 1990 as a reporter.
Joel Pimsleur, a reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle for 40 years, has died at the age of 83.
Jerrold Werthimer, a founder of the San Francisco State journalism program and a “Hall of Fame” faculty adviser, has died at the age of 93.
Renowned radio programmer and DJ 
Dave Roberts, who launched KRQR and was a veteran of KYA and KIOI, has died at the age of 70. Roberts also held a PhD in communications and was regarded as a skilled market researcher.
Bob Stinnett, a well-regarded and longtime Oakland Tribune photographer known widely for an iconic photo documenting a UC-Berkeley win over the rival Stanford team, has died at 94.
Hank Greenwald, the onetime broadcast voice of the San Francisco Giants, has died at 83 after dealing with heart and kidney issues. Greenwald was known for his on-air sense of humor and was beloved by Giants fans. He also broadcast for the New York Yankees, the Oakland A’s and the then-San Francisco Warriors basketball team.
Jerry Telfer, for 40 years a photographer at the San Francisco Chronicle, has died at the age of 75. The cause was liver failure. In his career he covered everything from the Berkeley People’s Park riots to portraits of celebrities such as Miles Davis.
Johnny Morris, an engineer and on-air personality at Bay Area soul stations KSOL and KDIA who was dubbed the “godfather of soul radio in California,” has died at the age of 70.
Investigative reporter, TV producer and onetime staffer at KRON-TV Stanhope Gould has died in San Mateo at the age of 83. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, he also worked with Walter Cronkite on the CBS Evening News.
Jack Bates, retired executive director of the California News Publishers Association and onetime president of the Sacramento Union, has died. He was “an intuitive leader who always seemed to know where to take the organization, when to do it, and the best way to get there,” said Bill Johnson, CNPA’s immediate past president.
Bruce Bellingham, writer, singer, actor, broadcaster and man about town, has died at the age of 66. In a farewell, Sharon Anderson, a colleague at the Marina Times, wrote that Bellingham’s words were “entertaining and acerbic but always avoided cruelty.”
The Bay Area cultural world has lost a key member with the death of David Wiegand, a San Francisco Chronicle staffer since 1992. Starting as a temporary copy editor, he went on to become an assistant managing editor and TV critic in the Datebook section. He was 70.
A popular fixture on Bay Area radio, expert on low-budget western films, and veteran of the Vietnam war, John Mack Flanagan has died at the age of 71. Among other achievements, he was a member of the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame and the National Disc Jockey Hall of Fame.
Shirley-Anne Owden, a copy editor, feature writer and accomplished headline writer for the San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Chronicle and other papers, has died after a long bout with cancer. Ms. Owden was well regarded for her journalism and beloved for her unique combination of sweet personality and wry wit.
Author, journalist, publicist and raconteur Ernest Beyl died one day after his 90th birthday. Mr. Beyl had just published his last book. His final column for the Marina Times was published after his death.
Journalist Gerald Nachman, who wrote for the San Jose Mercury, New York Post, Oakland Tribune, New York Daily News and San Francisco Chronicle, died at the age of 80 in San Francisco. In addition to his newspaper work, he produced numerous books, including “Raised on Radio.”
The incisive art critic David Bonetti, who wrote for the Hearst-owned San Francisco Examiner, died at his home in Massachusetts. Family members said he was found slumped in his chair while classical music played. His career took him from Boston to San Francisco to St. Louis and back to Boston.
Lewis Sawyer, “a dedicated KPFA apprentice and music programmer,” has died at the age of 87, the station announced.
Legendary talk radio pioneer Hilly Rose has died at the age of 91. A member of the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame, Rose hosted an early talk show on KCBS.
Dianne Levy, who worked for more than 35 years at the San Francisco Chronicle, has died in Vallejo after a battle with cancer. Ms. Levy had a varied career, in Chronicle Books, promotions and the Season of Sharing program, as well as supporting a wide range of environmental efforts outside of the paper.
Friends, colleagues and family members gathered at the Castro Theatre to memorialize Judy Stone, the “impossible, usually imperious and, despite it all, endearing” San Francisco Chronicle film reviewer who died in October.
Ed Dudkowski, an inventor who developed a live video editing system for television and was the holder of multiple patents, has died of cancer.
The film archivist Stephen Parr, said by a friend to “understood elements of culture, music, philosophy and film, in an order that only happened in his really creative, percolating mind,” has died.
Former San Francisco Chronicle movie critic Judy Stone has died at the age of 93. She was described by veteran journalist and movie critic Ruthe Stein as “a passionate and articulate advocate for the world of cinema outside Hollywood.”
Lloyd Watson, for decades a columnist and business editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, has died. He was regarded for clear writing, good connections to the business world, and a willingness to mentor young journalists.
Fred Van Amburg, known on Bay Area television simply as “Van Amburg,” has died at the age of 86 in El Cerrito. He was the dominant face and voice of news in the 1970s and ’80s, teaming with Jerry Jensen on KGO-TV to capture the bulk of the evening TV news market. Watch a 1986 newscast anchored by Van Amburg here.
Ken Ackerman, an iconic Bay Area radio voice for more than a half century, has died at the age of 95. After a short stint in Sacramento, he joined San Francisco radio station KQW, later to become KCBS, in 1942.
Wayne Walker, a former football star and sports director for Bay Area television station KPIX, has died at the age of 80. Before the age of ESPN and other cable sports behemoths, Mr. Walker was a dominant voice of sports in San Francisco for two decades. Before joining KPIX in 1974, he was a linebacker for the Detroit Lions. Steve Kroner, a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer and former co-worker with Mr. Walker, remembered him in this appreciation.
Robert W. Taylor, a pioneer in the development of modern computing, has died in Woodside at the age of 85. Mr. Taylor launched Arpanet, a precursor to the Internet, oversaw engineering at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center, and, according to the Los Angeles Times, “nurtured the youngest, most talented scientists he could find.”
John B. Edmands, longtime publisher and editor of the Pleasanton Times, has died at a rest home in England. In addition to his newspaper career, which spanned 30 years in Pleasanton alone, Mr. Edmands was active in civic affairs. He is remembered in this obituary by his stepdaughter Molly Walker.
Delbert Clark Biggs, whose career in journalism took him from the Sacramento Bee to KRON-TV and KGO-TV, has died in Granite Bay. He was 83/
Bob Benson, a KGO-radio news director whose career took him across the country, has died at 74. He is remembered fondly by Peter Cleaveland, a colleague over three decades.
David Cole, who helped usher the San Francisco Examiner into the digital age, published a newsletter on technology, and built scale-model steam railroads in his back yard, died at 62.
Agar Jaicks, a longtime KGO-TV director and producer. died at the age of 93. Best known as a well-regarded Democratic Party leader in San Francisco, he also worked for four decades at KGO, starting as a stagehand.
Warren Hinckle, the muckraking, monkey-wrenching journalist who was at home on a bar stool as in a newsroom, has died at the age of 77 in San Francisco. A colorful character who never met a deadline he liked, Hinckle wrote or edited for an array of publications, including Ramparts magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner. He was the author of numerous books, including “Who Killed Hunter S. Thompson?” due for publication this year.
Dennis J. Opatrny, an old-school reporter who doggedly covered crime, courts and corruption in Lincoln, Neb., Santa Rosa and San Francisco, died of cancer at the age of 77.
Grace Prien, for decades a doyenne of the San Francisco society pages, has died at the age of 101. From the 1940s to the 1970s, she wrote about all manner of celebrity gossip, the San Francisco Chronicle wrote in an obituary.
Veteran newspaper reporter and labor spokesman Jim Herron Zamora died after a stroke at the age of 57. His wide-ranging career and many talents were captured in obituaries in the Sacramento Bee and the San Francisco Chronicle.
Bob Rezak, a publicist with the soul of a journalist, a backer of the arts, and an early supporter of the Media Museum of Northern California, died Feb. 12, 2016, at the age of 83.
Catherine Shen. whose newspaper career as a reporter, editor and executive took her to Boston, San Francisco, Atlanta, Honolulu and the Pacific Northwest, has died at the age of 68.
Glenn Mayeda, whose journalism career took him from the now-defunct Richmond Independent to the sports desk in San Francisco, has died at 64 of complications of heart disease.
A onetime Army paratrooper, ad salesman, magazine publisher, media executive and CEO of the Chronicle Publishing Co., John Sias has died at 88. Among other things, he guided the Chronicle through its sale to the Hearst Corp.
Robert Commanday, who wrote about music and dance from 1964 to 1993 in the San Francisco Chronicle, has died at 93. He preceded his newspaper career as a music teacher and choral conductor. After he left the Chronicle he founded the website San Francisco Classical Voice. Read the Chronicle’s obituary here and Classical Voice’s appreciation here.
Laura Marquez, longtime reporter for KGO-TV and the ABC network, has died at the age of 56 of breast cancer. Her career included coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake and the recall of former California Gov. Gray Davis.
Former San Francisco Chronicle food columnist GraceAnn Walden died at the age of 70 at her Vallejo home. Chronicle staff member Paolo Lucchesi wrote this appreciation of her life and work.
David Littlejohn, professor emeritus of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, has died at his home in Kensington.
Ron Bergman, who covered the Bay Area sports scene for the Oakland Tribune and the San Jose Mercury News, has died at the age of 80.
Vince Roman, a news director with KGO-TV for 37 years, has died at the age of 90. Mr. Roman, a Belmont resident, was one of the first news directors in Bay Area television.
Carl Jensen, the Sonoma State University professor who founded Project Censored to highlight stories uncovered in the mainstream press, has died at 85.
Nan McEvoy, a member of the San Francisco Chronicle’s founding family, died March 26 at the age of 95. According to the Chronicle, she also was a founding staff member of the Peace Corps, a philanthropist, and a board member at UCSF, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the San Francisco Symphony and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington. In later life she established a company producing high quality olive oil.
Dori J. Maynard, a champion of diversity in journalism, president of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, writer and onetime newspaper reporter, has died at 56 of lung cancer. Robert J. Rosenthal, executive director of the Center for Investigative Reporting who met Ms. Maynard more than a quarter century ago, wrote this tribute.
He rose from copy boy to legendary editor in a San Francisco Chronicle career spanning 62 years. Bill German, described by Chronicle science editor David Perlman as “the finest shirt-sleeve editor I have ever known,” has died at the age of 95.
Bernard Mayes, first general manager of KQED-FM, public radio pioneer, Anglican priest and founder of the first U.S. suicide prevention center, has died at 85.
Michael Harris, a San Francisco Chronicle reporter whose stories in 1953 about government secrecy inspired California’s Brown Act open meetings law, has died at 92. He retired from the Chronicle in 1994 after nearly a half century at the paper.
Harry Sweet, the Sacramento Valley’s first television news photographer and “one of the nicest people you’d ever meet,” has died at the age of 93. He is credited with covering the famous and infamous, devising creative camera shots and preserving a wealth of footage that chronicles some of the most historic events of his time.
Casey Kasem, who personified the Top 40 radio format and in the 1960s broadcast from KYA in San Francisco and KEWB in Oakland, has died at 82.
In memoriam: Raul Ramirez, longtime newspaper reporter and editor, journalism teacher and executive director of news and public affairs at KQED radio, has died at the age of 67. The cause was esophageal cancer.
Talk show host Gene Burns, a veteran of KGO Radio, dies at 72.