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Sad News, as One of L.A.’s Best Known Business Writers Dies of a Massive Stroke: Mark Lacter Was 59

Nov 14, 2013  •  Post A Comment

"The news couldn’t have come as more of a shock: Yesterday, Mark Lacter, Los Angeles magazine’s business columnist, died of a massive stroke. He was a mere 59. I began editing Mark’s column when he came to the magazine eight years ago. Whether he was writing about boutique banks, Hollywood production flights, the middle-class squeeze, or LAX, Mark had a singular ability to boil down complicated details into a narrative that was easy to follow and a pleasure to read."

So reads the obituary by Los Angeles magazine’s executive editor Matthew Segal.

Lacter’s mellifluous voice was also familiar to the listeners of NPR’s KPCC, which serves Southern California. Lacter did regular business commentaries on the station. He also had a blog at LAObserved.com.

As Segal writes, Lacter’s skills were "polished over several decades as a writer and editor. Mark worked at the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Daily News and headed the Los Angeles Business Journal for two stints — one in the ’90s, with a gig [in between] as senior editor at Forbes before returning to the Journal."

Segal ends his column writing: "Mark had been with his wife, the mystery novelist Laura Levine, since 1988. ‘He was the best hubby,’ she said over the phone today [Thursday, Nov. 14, 2013] from her Westside home. ‘He always made me laugh.’ Me, too. We’ll all miss him very much. The man was without peer."

We urge you to click on the link above to read Segal’s entire tribute to Lacter.

mark-lacter-600.jpgMark Lacter

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