Robert F Erburu

Mr. Erburu, a descendant of a family of Basque ranchers that had been in California for seven generations, spent 35 years with Times Mirror after arriving in 1961 as a young lawyer hired to advise the company’s longtime owners, the politically conservative Chandler family. A year earlier, Otis Chandler had succeeded his father, Norman, as publisher, and he made clear that the paper would be more independent and ambitious journalistically and more diverse as a business. Mr. Erburu became central to putting those plans in place, rising steadily to become a vice president in 1965, president in 1974 and chief executive in 1981. In 1986, he succeeded Mr. Chandler as chairman — the only nonmember of the Chandler family to hold the position since the 1880s, other than a period of a few months in the early 1980s. Along the way, Times Mirror acquired major newspapers, including The Baltimore Sun, The Denver Post, The Dallas Times Herald and the Long Island paper Newsday, as well as television stations across the country, a book publisher and magazines like Popular Science and National Journal. By the mid-1980s, The Los Angeles Times had a daily circulation of 1.1 million, about twice what it had been when Mr. Erburu joined the paper. he lost his role as chief executive in 1995 after declines in profit prompted the family to replace him. He was succeeded by Mark H. Willes, a former vice chairman of General Mills. Mr. Willes did not hesitate to criticize the previous management. “Hardly anyone paid much attention to return on capital,” Mr. Willes was quoted as saying at the time. “We were sinking like a rock in a number of places in the company.” Mr. Erburu retired as chairman in 1996, and Mr. Willes went on to drastically streamline the company and challenge traditional boundaries between the news and business divisions. In 2000, Times Mirror was purchased by the Tribune Company, ending 119 years of ownership by the Chandler family. Mr. Erburu attended the University of Southern California, where he was editor of The Daily Trojan, and graduated in 1952. He earned a law degree from Harvard in 1955. He was working at the Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher law firm when he was hired by Times Mirror. He became general counsel a few months after he joined the company. In addition to his wife, the former Lois Stone, survivors include his daughters, Susan Reardon and Dr. Lisa Erburu, and four grandchildren.