Hundreds Mourn Times Editor

Nearly 900 mourners Tuesday honored the accomplished life of Frank del Olmo, a Los Angeles Times associate editor and columnist who championed Latinos in and outside the newsroom.

Family and friends attending funeral services at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena remembered Del Olmo as a quiet man who had broken ethnic barriers and advocated social justice.

Del Olmo died at age 55 of an apparent heart attack Thursday after collapsing in his office at The Times.

Mourners extolled Del Olmo as an award-winning journalist who helped launch careers -- and as a loyal friend, an adoring husband and a loving father of two.

“To know Frank del Olmo is to know that he was the shape of God’s heart,” said Father Gregory Boyle, Del Olmo’s friend and the Eastside priest who founded Homeboy Industries, a job-training program for former gang members. “ ... Frank was proof that the heart can hold everything in it.”

Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn, Los Angeles City Council President Alex Padilla, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and actor Edward James Olmos were among those attending.

Times Editor John Carroll said the newspaper had received an outpouring of tributes from people ranging from Mexican President Vicente Fox to an unknown admirer who had left at the newspaper a tall votive candle decorated with the image of Saint Anthony of Padua, the patron saint of the poor and others in need.

With the candle was a note, scrawled in blue Magic Marker. It read, in Spanish: “We will remember you always, Mr. Frank del Olmo.”

“We, too,” Carroll said, “will always remember.”

During his nearly 34 years with The Times, Del Olmo distinguished himself as a staff writer, foreign correspondent, editorial writer, deputy editor of the editorial page, a Times-Mirror Foundation director and an assistant to the editor of The Times.

The latter position landed him on the paper’s masthead; he was the first Latino to be listed among the top editors.

In 1984, Del Olmo helped guide a series, “Southern California’s Latino Community,” which won the Pulitzer Prize for meritorious public service.

“We’ll remember Frank del Olmo always for his commitment to future journalists,” said Felix Gutierrez, a visiting professor of journalism at USC and a longtime friend. “He may have been the first Latino to ascend to the height of American journalism, but he will not be last.”

Del Olmo was a founding member of the California Chicano News Media Assn. and an Emmy winner for a 1975 documentary on illegal immigration. He was inducted into the National Assn. of Hispanic Journalists’ Hall of Fame in 2002.

Born in Los Angeles on May 18, 1948, Del Olmo graduated magna cum laude from Cal State Northridge in 1970 with a journalism degree. He started at The Times that same year as an intern.

During the funeral service, which lasted nearly two hours, Veto Ruiz Trio, a small mariachi group, played the sweet Mexican ballads that Del Olmo loved, including “Usted,” a song he often dedicated to his wife, Magdalena.

“Last week, I lost my only love, my only soul mate,” Magdalena del Olmo told the congregation.

She described her husband as an avid reader, music lover and tender father to his daughter, Valentina Marisol, and his son, Frankie.

Frankie, who is autistic, was the subject of an annual column Del Olmo began in 1995, when his son was 3. He wrote about his and his wife’s attempts to understand autism and help their son.

“He became an advocate and a voice for his little Frankie and children with autism,” Magdalena del Olmo said, adding that each column produced a huge outpouring from readers.

With humor she recalled how he’d schedule the Frankie columns during their vacations, so Del Olmo would have time to answer the dozens of letters he received.

Del Olmo spent his last weekend in Monterey County, where he planned to retire.

“He died a happy man,” Magdalena del Olmo said. “His smile was broad. His hope for the future immense.”

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Contributions can be made to the Frank del Olmo Memorial Scholarship Fund at the California Chicano News Media Assn., 3800 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90037; or the Cure Autism Now Foundation, 5455 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 715, Los Angeles, CA 90036.