Former Bakersfield Californian
publisher Fritts dies at 69

By The Bakersfield Californian | Friday, May 5 2006 5:15 PM
Last Updated: Friday, May 5 2006 5:15 PM

Don Fritts, former publisher of The Bakersfield Californian and great-grandson of the paper's most influential publisher, has died. He was 69.

Fritts died of complications from Huntington's disease on Thursday at his Bakersfield home, The Californian reported.

"Don was quite bashful but he was very much a gentleman and I think he cared about the people in the newsroom very much," said Joe D. Stevenson, a recently retired Californian columnist.

Fritts became the family-owned newspaper's publisher in 1970.

"I am aware that no other business is as close to human endeavor in all fields as that of a good community newspaper," he said as a 23-year-old reporter.

Donald Harrell Fritts was born in San Francisco in 1936. He graduated from Stanford University in 1958 with a degree in political science. After a stint in the U.S. Army, he worked as a buyer for a Bay Area department store. He missed newspaper work and moved to Bakersfield in 1960, where he spent his whole journalism career at The Californian.

At the newspaper, he worked as a reporter and business editor before becoming executive editor in 1966.

He was diagnosed with Huntington's disease in 1981 and retired 10 years later.

Fritts' great-grandfather, Alfred Harrell, bought The Californian in 1897 and was the paper's longest-serving publisher. Many family members have worked there.

Fritts donated money to many Bakersfield youth, art and civic charities. His house will be donated to the Hereditary Disease Foundation.

Fritts is survived by a sister, Ginger Moorhouse.

His body will be cremated, and there are no services planned.
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Information from: The Bakersfield Californian