BATON ROUGE, La. — Jerry Ceppos, a distinguished news editor, executive and educator, whose career included leading Pulitzer Prize winning teams and two journalism schools, died Friday. He was 75.
The cause of death was sepsis brought on by a severe infection, according to an obituary approved by the family.
Ceppos rose to become the one-time vice president of news at Knight Ridder, one of the nation’s newspaper companies. Prior to that he worked at the San Jose Mercury News, serving as the paper’s managing editor, executive editor and senior vice president. The newspaper won two Pulitzer Prizes during his tenure.
He served as dean of the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada/Reno and as dean of the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University from 2011 to 2018. Under his leadership, the school launched the LSU Cold Case Project in which students work to solve unsolved civil rights murders. He moved to a full-time teaching role in 2018.
“A relentless supporter of democracy, ethics and diversity, Jerry was a titan in the field of journalism and mass communication education over the course of 50-plus years,” the Manship School of Mass Communication posted in a statement announcing his death.
In 2016, Ceppos was named a fellow of the Society of Professional Journalists, the society’s highest honor that recognizes “journalists who have made an extraordinary contribution to the profession.” He also won the organization’s Ethics in Journalism Award in 1997.
His most recent publication was editing the 2021 book, “Covering Politics in the Age of Trump,” a collection of essays by journalists.