SAN ANTONIO -- Ted Warmbold, editor of The San Antonio Light, died Saturday after a 10-day struggle with cryptococcal meningitis, an AIDS-related disease, the newspaper said.
Warmbold had been the chief news executive of The Light since joining the newspaper in June 1981. He was 45.
'Ted was the most talented editor I have had the privilege of working with during my almost 25 years in the newspaper business,' said Publisher George B. Irish.
During his eight years as editor, he increased the newsroom staff by half and was the driving force behind expansions in sports, metro and business coverage.
Also during his tenure, circulation increased from 115,000 daily and 181,000 on Sunday to 156,700 daily and 241,000 on Sunday in 1988.
Warmbold was born Dec. 10, 1943, in St. Louis. After seven years of studying to become a priest, he attended St. Louis University for a year, then transferred to the University of Missouri School of Journalism, where he received his degree.
He began his career as a reporter with the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle, a Gannett newspaper and spent six months working for Gannett's TODAY in Cocoa, Fla.
In 1969, Warmbold was named assistant managing editor at the Democrat and Chronicle. And in 1972, Gannett named him managing editor of the San Bernardino (Calif.) Sun-Telegram.
Warmbold left Gannett in 1975 when he was named assistant managing editor of the Dallas Times Herald. The following year, he became executive editor of D magazine in Dallas.
In 1977, he moved to The Hearst Corp.'s Los Angeles Herald Examiner as executive editor. Hearst named him executive editor of The Light in 1981 and editor in 1986.
He was a member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Society of Newspaper Design and a former president of the Texas UPI Editors Association.
Warmbold is survived by his wife, Carolyn, his mother, Frances Hendel Warmbold of St. Louis, three sister and three brothers.
A funeral mass is to be celebrated at 10 a.m. Monday at San Fernando Cathedral. He is to be buried in St. Louis.
