DETROIT, April 4 (UPI) -- Neil Shine, the former publisher and editor who helped The Detroit Free Press as it won awards and endured a strike, has died near Detroit at the age of 76.
Shine, who died Tuesday of respiratory failure, began his nearly 50 years' association with the Free Press as a copy boy, working his way up to reporter, city editor, managing editor roles and finally publisher, The New York Times said.
He helped direct the Press's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Detroit race riots, and the George Polk award-winning shootings of students at Kent State University.
By the time he retired in 1995, the paper was locked in a 19-month labor strike that put Shine on the opposite side of the line from some of his closest colleagues and friends.
Shine is survived by his wife, six children, 17 grandchildren and two brothers.
