Obituary of John M McClelland

John Morris McClelland Jr., a former editor and publisher of The Daily News, died Saturday at age 95 as a memorial service was being held for his wife, who died weeks earlier. Mr. McClelland, who died at an assisted-living home on Mercer Island, earned a national reputation as a newspaper owner with a strong commitment to high-caliber journalism. He also was a well-regarded historian who recorded the birth and development of Longview and wrote four books about Washington history. The newspaper reported his death Sunday. "Under John McClelland Jr., The Daily News was a family newspaper — in every sense of the word," recalled former Daily News Managing Editor Bob Gaston. "He was honest and fair to employees, advertisers and readers." Mr. McClelland was married for 71 years to his high-school sweetheart, Burdette Craig. She died on Oct. 4, and her memorial service in Seattle on Saturday coincided with her husband's death. Readers knew Mr. McClelland best as the author of a front-page editorial column that was a standard feature of The Daily News for decades. His contributions to journalism included founding the Journal-American daily newspaper in Bellevue in 1986. He also started Washington magazine and Columbia: the Magazine of Northwest History. Mr. McClelland served on the boards of directors of The Associated Press and the Sigma Delta Chi journalism organization, of which he was national president in 1952. "I'd say one of the biggest feathers in his cap was being elected to the advisory board of The Associated Press" in 1969-72 and 1974-82, said his son, John McClelland III. He started Cowlitz County's first cable-television company, Cableview, which has been absorbed over the years into the Comcast. Mr. McClelland was born May 31, 1915, in Rogers, Ark. He moved to Longview in 1923 when he was 8, and his father became the publisher of The Daily News. His great-uncle, R.A. Long, founded Longview. His uncle, Samuel "Mark" Morris, was former president of Long-Bell Lumber. Mr. McClelland graduated in 1933 from R.A. Long High School and in 1937 from Stanford University. In 1939, Mr. McClelland joined the staff of The Daily News. He was editor from 1940 to 1974, and publisher from 1955 to 1977. He was gone between 1942 and 1945, while serving as a gunnery officer in the Navy during World War II. Mr. McClelland took over writing the daily front-page column of commentary, News and Views, which his father had written since 1929. He continued writing the Saturday Views column for some time after his nephew and successor, the late Ted Natt, took over the column in 1974. From 1977 until he retired in 1986, he was chief executive officer of the newspaper's parent company, Longview Publishing, which then also owned The Daily News in Port Angeles and the Journal-American in Bellevue. The company produced "Volcano: The Eruption of Mount St. Helens," written by the staffs of his newspapers and which made The New York Times's best-seller list. Under his family's ownership, The Daily News in Longview won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the volcano's 1980 eruptions. Services are pending.