Remembering the quintessential business editor

Jeff McDonald of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes about its former business editor, Don Bauder, who died recently at the age of 88.

McDonald writes, “Craig D. Rose, the former Union-Tribune technology and utilities reporter hired by Bauder in 1987, said his old editor was renowned across the newsroom for standing by his reporters and keeping meticulous tabs on the thousands of pages or documents piled high on his desk.

“‘He knew the markets. He knew filings. He knew the SEC, and he knew about financial scams and how they worked,’ he said. ‘One of his best lines was, ‘Most thievery is legal.’’

“Bauder would never ask someone to do a job he would not do himself, Rose said.

“‘Nothing was beneath him,’ he said. ‘If you asked him to sweep the floor, he would sweep the floor and come back with a story about rip-offs in the cleaning industry. He had an insider’s knowledge of corporate complexity and an outsider’s outrage.'”

Read more here.