Obit

Sarmiento, 86

FILIPINO PHOTOJOURNALIST Jose “Joe” Sarmiento died last December 31. He was 86.

Sarmiento was chief photographer of the now defunct Philippines Herald. (Pillar and Pioneer, Philippine Daily Inquirer)

In 1951, Sarmiento helped organize the Press Photographers of the Philippines. He was a staff photographer at the Malacanang Press Office in 1953. (Veteran photojournalist Jose Sarmiento; 86, Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Sarmiento also headed the photo section of the Philippine Tourist and Travel Association and the Professional Photographers Association. In 1981, he co-founded the first National Photography Convention.

Sarmiento also taught Creative Photography and Photojournalism at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila and the Asian Institute of Journalism, respectively. (Veteran photojournalist Jose Sarmiento; 86, Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Forst, 81

AMERICAN NEWSPAPER editor Donald Forst died of colon cancer last January 4. He was 81.

Forst worked as cultural editor of The New York Times, assistant editor of the New York Post and editor-in-chief of the Boston Herald. (Donald Forst dies at 81; newsman led N.Y. Newsday and Village Voice, Los Angeles Times)

In 1971, he served as managing editor of Newsday. He later quit Newsday and worked for The Herald Examiner. But Forst returned in 1985 as Newsday’s editor-in-chief where he mentored reporters and columnists before the paper folded in 1995. Forst led Newsday to win two Pulitzer Prizes.

Forst also edited The Village Voice from 1996 to 2005. In 2000, The Voice won a Pulitzer for international reporting for a series on AIDS in Africa. (Donald H. Frost, Feisty Newspaper Editor, Dies at 81, The New York Times)

Jim Dwyer, former Newsday reporter who now works for The New York Times, said of Forst: “He might send somebody to go live in an obscure village in the Dominican Republic for three months. He might send someone else to write about the subways three times a week because that was the defining experience of a New Yorker. He wanted to be first and exclusive with everything so he pushed and pushed and pushed.”

Glenn Kessler, also a Newsday alumnus who now works for The Washington Post, said: “Don was an inspirational and exacting editor who took a wisp of an idea—quality New York tabloid—and turned it into a reality.” (Veteran NY newsman Donald Forst dies at 81, Yahoo News)