Complete Story
07/30/2018
Retired Blade managing editor Edson A. Whipple passes away
Edson A. Whipple, a retired managing editor of The Blade who was an award-winning reporter and Columbus bureau chief for the newspaper, died Sunday morning at Swan Creek Health Care Center. He was 86.
He had been in declining health after he had undergone surgery because of complications from a fall at his Old Orchard home, his daughter Mary Ann Whipple said.
Mr. Whipple retired in 1990 from The Blade, where his professional journalism career began more than 32 years earlier. He covered city hall for the former Toledo Times and for The Blade. He also covered schools and general assignments.
John Robinson Block, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Blade and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, said Mr. Whipple was often called on to do the more complex, difficult, or politically sensitive stories that arose during his tenure.
“He was really one of our star reporters in the earlier time,” he said.
Mr. Whipple was recognized for outstanding reporting in 1964 by the northwest Ohio Sigma Delta Chi. His investigative digging into documents dating back nearly 20 years yielded the city a refund from the state of more than $142,000 related to the construction of the Toledo-Detroit Expressway, as it was known then.
“He was a very dogged, very competitive reporter who would leave no stone unturned,” his daughter said. “I think that’s the way he conducted himself in a lot of other aspects of his life.”
He was assigned to the Columbus bureau in 1965. He was honored in 1967 by the Ohio Legislative Correspondents Association for best in-depth reporting of state government. During his Statehouse tenure, he played for the press corps softball team.
