News, Tim Rutten, longtime Times columnist and editor with a flair for original thinking, dies : detailed suggestions and opinions about Tim Rutten, longtime Times columnist and editor with a flair for original thinking, dies .
Tim Rutten, a longtime Times columnist and editor whose ability to drill through the many riddles and contradictions of Los Angeles won legions of admirers, has died.
A deep thinker with a puckish sense of humor, Rutten was found dead Thursday after falling at his Alhambra home, said his former wife, noted criminal defense attorney Leslie Abramson. He was 72.
During a 40-year career, Rutten moved seamlessly across The Times’ newsroom — city bureau chief, metro reporter, editorial writer, assistant national editor, book critic and columnist. He was part of The Times’ team of journalists that won the Pulitzer Prize for the paper’s coverage of the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
“Original in thought and lyrical in print, his work is witty, well-reported, passionate, yet staunchly nonpartisan,” Times staff writer Tom Curwen wrote in the paper’s 2005 Pulitzer nomination of Rutten for commentary.
