Marshall Tome, Navajo journalist, dies at 80

Tuesday, November 27, 2007  

Marshall Tome, one of the founders of The Navajo Times, died on Friday after a bout with lung disease and pneumonia. He was 85.

Tome, a World War II veteran, was working at The San Francisco Chronicle when he was asked to start the Navajo Times in the late 1950s. He eventually purchased the paper from the tribe and then-chairman Peter MacDonald.

"Because of his stature in the community, he had clout, so he was able to make the paper into something dynamic, something different," editor Tom Arviso told the Associated Press.

But after a new slate of tribal leaders came in, the deal was rescinded in 1982. Tome went to tribal court but ended up losing and started another newspaper on the reservation that lasted four years.

Tome also worked for the tribe on economic development.

Get the Story:
Navajo journalist remembered as hard worker, mentor (AP 11/27)

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