Former Chronicle executive, a lifelong newspaperman, dead at 88

Gene McDavid

Gene McDavid, who served as president of SNPA in 1994-95 when he was president of the Houston Chronicle, died Friday after an illness. He was 88.

McDavid, who retired from the Chronicle in 1998, started out 40 years earlier in the composing room as a Linotype operator. He worked his way through the ranks and in 1990 became the newspaper's president.

"He loved the newspaper business – he loved its mission and its role in the world," said his daughter, Carol McDavid, who lives in Houston.

Read more from the Houston Chronicle