LOS ANGELES -- Dial Torgerson, who rose from his job as a copy boy on a San Fernando Valley newspaper 38 years ago to become a distinguished foreign correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, died Tuesday. He was 55.
A car in which Torgerson was riding in Honduras Tuesday, was hit by a Nicaraguan grenade fired from across the border, killing him and Richard Cross, a freelance photographer on assignment for U.S. News & World Report, and injuring their driver.
Torgerson was the Times' Mexico City bureau chief at the time of his death.
'Dial Torgerson worked for the Times for 16 years and never turned in less than a first-rate performance,' Times' Editor William Thomas said Tuesday. 'He also ... was a good personal friend and will be sorely missed by us, and all who knew him.'
Torgerson attended the University of Southern California, while he worked as a copy boy for the Valley Times in North Hollywood. He earned his bachelor's degree in journalism in 1951.
Torgerson was a lieutenant in the Army infantry from 1952 to 1954, then joined the Associated Press in Los Angeles, where he was a general assignment reporter and editor.
He went to the Times in 1967 where he worked on the metropolitan staff until 1974, when he was transferred to the foreign staff.
