“Every parent is a larger-than-life figure to their children,” his son said in a tribute posted on Facebook. “But Ron was a 1 of 1: a sensational journalist, an independent thinker, a warm and emotionally connected father and grandfather, an intellectual and someone who believed in the Dionysian spirit of life. He enjoyed life to the very end, celebrated my birthday with me this weekend over omakase sushi and sake and had his grandchildren over on the Tuesday after summer camp.”

Kaye worked for the Daily News for 23 years, joining the paper as assistant local editor in 1985. He became the paper’s managing editor in 1993 and was named editor in 2005.

“All good things in life come to an end sooner or later, even my love affair with the Daily News,” Kaye said in a message to the editor when he left the paper in 2008. “What will always be with me is my love and respect for all of you.”

During his tenure, Kaye became the public face of the paper, and his bombastic personality and relentless criticism of key figures in City Hall shaped the mission of the paper’s opinion page.

“A lot of politicians thought Ron was unfair or hard on them,” said Rick Orlov, a longtime Daily News political reporter and columnist, when Kaye left the Daily News in 2008. “He wanted them to understand what they were doing and the impact it was having on the middle- and working-class families of the San Fernando Valley.” Orlov died in 2015.

“Ron, his time and his place were made for each other,” said Kevin Modesti, longtime reporter and editor of the Southern California News Group. “He was the loudest voice in the newsroom when it was still so busy.”

Modesti, whose bylines stretched from the sports pages to the Metro pages, was a sportswriter and sports columnist during the Kaye era.

“Ron’s sermons on journalism, politics and even sports could be so high-flown and philosophical that sometimes I wouldn’t know what he had just told me when I left,” Modesti said. “But I always left more motivated for my mission – whatever it was.”

“He was a damn good newspaperman,” said Dennis McCarthy, a reporter and columnist for the Daily News for decades.

“Ron stepped on a lot of toes in this town in pursuit of the truth,” McCarthy added. “You can feel sorry for the politician or bureaucrat who tried to tell him a lie. He wasn’t afraid to take them on. He believed his job was to make sure the game wasn’t rigged and that the little guy was treated fairly. That was his marching orders to every reporter who had the privilege of working with him.”

Longtime Daily News photo editor Dean Musgrove worked with Kaye at the paper as well as at the LA Herald Examiner, which closed in 1989.

“I knew and appreciated Ron Kaye’s passion and commitment to compelling journalism from our beginnings on the weekend desk of the Herald Examiner to our move to the Los Angeles Daily News, where he later became our editor,” Musgrove said.

Musgrove added: “The Daily News staff will forever remember Ron for his call for ‘more cowbell!’ It was a catchphrase he took from the Saturday Night Live sketch, and he would parade around the newsroom with a drumstick and cowbell in his hand.”

During his tenure at the Daily News, the paper was heavily involved in the attempt by San Fernando Valley politicians to secede from the city of LA. The political movement in the early 2000s inevitably failed at the ballot box – 50.7 percent of Valley voters cast ballots in favor of cityhood, but voters across the metropolitan area rejected the initiative.

“As editor of the Daily News at the time, I felt the Valley needed to stand up for itself and demand respect from City Hall,” Kaye wrote in a column marking the 10th anniversary of the secession movement. “Secession was the best tool available to accomplish that, whether it succeeded or failed.”

Those who worked with him witnessed first hand Kaye’s spirited watchdog mind.

“He was tough and sensitive, but a solid journalist,” said Bill Van Laningham, who retired in June as vice president of marketing for the Southern California News Group and began his career 43 years ago at the LA Daily News. “He had no fools, and he pushed all of us on the business side to step up our game and properly represent, promote and support the great work of our journalists and newsroom … The Daily News and the San Fernando Valley were better because of him.”

After leaving the Daily News, Kaye became a blogger, columnist and activist. He said he worked hard to “bring community groups of all kinds to agree on a common agenda with the shared goal of making Los Angeles a better city.”

“In the microcosm of Los Angeles, he tried to find a balance between these forces, pushing for coverage of important issues like police brutality against Rodney King and championing the interests of the ‘everyman’ of the San Fernando Valley,” his son said. “After retiring, he developed a political blog where he became an even more outspoken critic of public officials.”

Prior to joining the Daily News, Kaye worked as a reporter and editor at The Associated Press, Newsweek, the National Enquirer and the LA Herald-Examiner.

According to his son, Ron grew up in a Jewish family in a suburb of Cleveland. He studied anthropology at the University of Chicago.

He began his career as a journalist at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, but was later drafted into the Army. During the Vietnam War, he was stationed in Alaska, where he later worked at small newspapers in Yakima and Fairbanks.

“He loved the people he worked with and cared for,” his son said, “and spoke with pride about their current careers and their development until his death.”

“Ron was incredibly warm and caring, but when he asked for something, he was the lion with the roar that got everyone’s attention and got us all back on track,” Musgrove said. “He will be missed by so many.”

Kaye leaves behind his wife Deborah, his son Alfred, and his grandchildren Dash and Theo.

Plans for a celebration of life will be announced as soon as they are finalized, his son said.

“Ron’s love extended beyond the newsroom to his devotion to his wife Deborah – whom he met at the Daily News – and his son Alfred. He was incredibly proud of his life with them,” Musgrove said.

Senior editor Tom Bray contributed to this article.

Originally published: August 18, 2024 at 12:27 pm