Former Evening Outlook Publisher Funk Dies at 92

C. Deane Funk, former publisher of the Santa Monica Evening Outlook, passed away peacefully on his 92nd birthday in Thousand Oaks after a brief illness.

Funk was born in Normal, IL, with the family moving to Glendale a year later, and finally to Santa Monica in 1936. He attended Harvard Military School before transferring to The Taft School, in Watertown, CT. After a year at Stanford, Deane served in the U. S. Navy on the USS Lauderdale during WWII as Radio Technician First Class. His ship participated in the invasion of Okinawa.

After the war Deane returned to Stanford, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1948. While at Stanford he met his wife, Joan. They married May 12, 1951 and enjoyed 65 years of marriage, including raising three sons, Bill, Jim and Allen.

Deane was a third generation newspaper publisher, spending most of his career at the Santa Monica Evening Outlook where he was the long-time publisher. Later, he co-owned and published the Inyo Register and Mono Herald in Bishop, CA with his brother Ron.

Under his leadership the Outlook won more than 40 awards in the California Newspaper Publishers Assn. (CNPA) annual Better Newspaper competitions from 1960 to 1983. At the same time, Deane maintained an active role in the industry, serving as president of the CNPA in 1975, and was also on the boards of the Western Newspaper Industrial Relations Bureau and the California Newspaper Service Bureau.

Deane was involved in many civic and community organizations in both Santa Monica and Bishop, including serving as president of the Santa Monica Jaycees, the Santa Monica organizations in both Santa Monica and Bishop, including serving as president of the Santa Monica Jaycees, the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce, and the Santa Monica Rotary Club.

Among the many community boards were the Santa Monica YMCA and the Boy Scout council. He was recognized as the Santa Monica Jaycees Young Man of the Year in 1959.

He will be remembered for his remarkable breadth of knowledge, his love of travel, having visited 116 countries with his wife and his enjoyment of sports. He covered the 1948 London Olympics for the AP, had Dodger season tickets starting with their first season in Los Angeles, and attended the first Super Bowl.

Deane is survived by his wife, his brother Robert (Ron) Funk, sister Elinor Urstadt, three sons, three daughters-in-law, and five grandchildren.

Funk served as President of the California Newspaper Publishers Association (CNPA) in 1975. During his CNPA presidency he worked to protect the rights of newspapers to distribute newspapers via news racks and urged investment into expanded newsprint manufacturing capacity.

During Funk's tenure, CNPA fought for the right to advertise prescription drugs, to expand the Ralph M. Brown Act to prohibit secret discussions about council and board appointments, to expand the California Public Records Act and began the discussion associated with the "Fresno Three" to protect journalists' sources and unprotected notes from subpoena.

This last issue culminated with the strengthening and enshrining of the California Shield Law in the California Constitution in 1980.

Funk was a president and board member of the Western Newspaper Industrial Relations Bureau and a member of the Labor Relations Committee of the American Newspaper Publishers Association as well as chairman of the California Newspaper Service Bureau.

The California Press Association honored Deane Funk with the Philip N. McCombs Achievement Award in 1998.

The Santa Monica Evening Outlook, which had been purchased by the Copley Press newspaper chain in 1983, was closed in 1998 after 123 years.