Former LA Daily News editor Ron Kaye has died, according to a social media post by his son. He was 83 years old and died Thursday evening.

“I am writing to share a painful news: my father, Ron Kaye, passed away suddenly last night at home surrounded by my mother, Deborah,” his son Alfred wrote in a personal memory of his father, which he shared on Facebook on Friday.

“Many of you know Ron as a combative and polemical journalist, as a mentor, as a neighbor – or perhaps as a friend,” Alfred continued. “Every parent is a larger-than-life figure to their children. 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 was with the Daily News for 23 years before being fired in 2008, although the paper publicly described it as a resignation. The paper noted at the time, “During his tenure at the Daily News, Kaye became the public face of the paper, and his bombastic personality and scathing criticism of Los Angeles City Hall dominated the paper’s editorial pages.”

“During this period, he saw at work many of the forces of social and political decay that have recently damaged our politics,” Alfred writes. “In the microcosm of Los Angeles, he sought to find a balance between these forces, pushing forward coverage of important issues like the police brutality against Rodney King while also championing the interests of the ‘everyman’ in the San Fernando Valley.”

It was also at the Daily News that he met his wife, Deborah, whom Alfred noted he called “the love of his life.” After his retirement, Kaye continued to write about politics online in a blog (formerly hosted at RonKayeLA.com), calling himself a citizen journalist and continuing to criticize public officials.

He also took issue with his former employers, including a scathing 2009 attack on Ed Moss, the outgoing CEO of LA News Group who had been the paper’s third publisher in 18 months. Kaye described him at the time as a “hollow suit” who had “sucked the spirit out of the paper and let it die.”

“I’ve been fired before, but never by someone who had to fly in a replacement from out of town,” Kaye noted.

In his efforts to save the paper, he pursued a strategy he called “more cowbell,” an homage to the famous “Saturday Night Live” sketch starring Will Ferrell. His colleague Julia Scott wrote in a tribute to Kaye after his departure: “He challenged us to be innovative and try new things, to be as groundbreaking as the cowbell-playing musician Ferrell plays.” She continued: “Who knows, maybe we’ll figure out how to make the paper profitable. If we screwed up, at least we tried. Ron called the strategy “more cowbell” and staggered around the newsroom shouting that slogan while banging on a metal cowbell.”

When he left the Daily News, he wrote to his colleagues: “All good things in life come to an end sooner or later, even my love affair with the Daily News. What I will always have is my love and respect for all of you.” He offered his support and encouragement to his colleagues as they worked to keep the paper alive in the digital age. “I know it can be done and I wish you all the best in whatever you do, wherever the road takes you. Thank you for everything, these have been the happiest and most fulfilling years of my life.”

Of Kaye’s political zeal, his son writes: “Sometimes he could be too passionate – we warned our guests not to mention Trump, self-driving cars or JFK, and joked about his ‘RONting.’ He always had a sense of humor about it and embraced the character he had developed; in his late 70s he studied improvisation and by his 80s he was performing in local plays.”

The Jewish journalist grew up in a suburb of Cleveland before going to the University of Chicago to study anthropology. “He boasted that he graduated with the worst GPA ever,” Alfred noted wryly.

Kaye began his journalism career at the Cleveland Plain Dealer before being drafted into the Army and serving in Alaska during the Vietnam War. He worked for small newspapers in Fairbanks and Yakima before moving to the Associated Press and Newsweek, eventually ending up in Los Angeles.

The journalist was a union leader and, among other things, led a strike against Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper “The Australian”.

“He liked to say that he had never quit a job, but had been fired many times,” Alfred writes.

Alfred acknowledged his father’s love for the people he worked with and cared for, writing that “until his death he spoke with pride of their present careers and trajectories.”

Kaye’s hobbies, perhaps surprising for a man his age, include video games. “He was an obsessive gamer,” his son writes, adding that “one month he had the highest Tetris score in Nintendo Power magazine and in the last months of his life he played bridge and NYTimes spelling bee.”

The family is asking anyone who wishes to make a monetary donation in his name to do so in the form of a donation to the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz campaign, noting that “he was passionate about the dangers of authoritarian leaders and would have wanted to do so.” They plan to hold shiva for him this Sunday at his home in Orange, Connecticut. A celebration of life will be organized at a later date and details will be announced then.

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