News-Times Retired Editor Dies

 DANBURY (AP) — Edward Frede, retired executive editor of The News-Times, died Monday after a long bout with lung cancer. He was 71.

Mr Frede was a Danbury native who began working at the paper as a copy editor in 1969 and worked his way up, becoming editor in 1980, then executive editor in 1995.

He was known as a big supporter of the state Freedom of Information Act, which ensures the public has access to government decisionmaking. He served as secretary/treasurer of both the Connecticut Council on the FOI and the Connecticut Foundation for Open Government.

Mr Frede received the E. Bartlett Barnes Award from the state FOI Commission for his lifetime of work promoting open government.

Mr Frede’s death is “a real loss to journalism in the finest sense of that term,” Mitchell Pearlman, former director of the State FOI Commission said.

He is survived by his wife, Mary Ann Frede; two sons and four grandchildren.

Mr Frede’s funeral was Thursday at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Danbury.