The following excerpt was sent out from the Valley Morning Star:
Ed Asher (Photo/myrgv.com)
Nearly 18 years ago, Ed Asher returned to the Valley Morning Star after working for the Albuquerque Tribune, becoming a national award-winning writer and Pulitzer Prize finalist, following a stint as a reporter with the Houston Chronicle.
At the Star, he took a job as the newspaper’s night city editor, mentoring many young reporters into award-winning journalists.
He died Monday after struggling with health problems.
He was 65.
In 1980, he graduated from Southwest State University in San Marcos with a journalism degree.
“Eddie began writing when he was very, very young,” Richard Asher, his older brother, said Thursday. “He was drawn to that. He had probably written hundreds of stories. For him, that was practice for the news. He didn’t want to be a novelist. He’d watch the news and catch mistakes these national guys were making. He said, ‘I want to do the news.’”
“Ed did some very big things in a quiet manner,” his sister said.
In his last days, Asher was awaiting test results to determine whether a blood clot had formed in his swollen leg, his sister said.
“I’m saddened of his passing,” Stephan Wingert, editor and publisher of the Valley Morning Star, the McAllen Monitor and the Brownsville Herald, said. “Ed was the epitome of journalism. He was that original journalist, probably one of the finest journalists in our company. His mentoring of young reporters — a mentor is so important in our field. He’s going to be sorely missed.”