LOS ANGELES (AP) – Anthony Marquez, an Associated Press intern who rose to Los Angeles bureau chief where his calm hand brought stability to AP’s news coverage in Southern California amid titanic changes for the journalism industry, has died. He was 55.
Marquez succumbed Thursday to complications from cancer.
Unfailingly courteous and with a disarmingly quick wit, Marquez brought a passion to journalism honed over a career spanning more than 30 years. He was a champion of diversity and a leader in AP’s recruitment efforts.
AP President Gary Pruitt said Marquez “exemplified the very best of AP: high journalistic standards, impeccable business ethics, treating everyone with respect.”
Marquez began his journalism career in 1986 as an intern at the AP’s Minneapolis bureau. He left the AP to work for several San Francisco Bay area newspapers and then returned in 2000 as assistant bureau chief in San Francisco.
He became LA bureau chief in 2003, when digitalization began bringing massive changes and job cuts to journalism.