Former New York Times president dies at 84

Walter Mattson wasn’t always the president and chief operating officer of The New York Times. He had to work his way up.

One particular morning, his 12th birthday, Mattson was given an extra bundle of papers to deliver on his route. It was June 6, 1944, and the Allies had invaded Europe hours earlier. Throughout his route, people stopped him to read about D-Day.

He was late to school and got in trouble, but he didn’t mind. He made $6.25 that morning.

He later told his family that experience led to his love of the newspaper industry.

Mattson, 84, died on Dec. 30. From working at his uncle’s newspaper to being an assistant production manager at the Boston Herald Traveler, Mattson showed a special interest in newspapers and the printing business throughout much of his life.

“His true-love side of the paper was the production,” Mattson’s wife, Geraldine, said. “He liked everything about getting the paper out.”

Mattson joined The Times in 1960 as an assistant production manager and stayed with the company until his retirement in 1993, the newspaper wrote in its obituary. He served as president from 1979 to 1992. In 2001, the Mattsons moved to Longboat Key year-round. During his years at The Times, Mattson worked to modernize the production of the newspaper and its newsroom and ushered in a national edition.

Diane McFarlin, dean of the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida, was a colleague of Mattson’s for about 30 years. She said he was a strategic thinker who was instinctive about newsrooms. In the early 1990s, while McFarlin was the executive editor of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, which The Times owned at the time, Mattson suggested the Herald-Tribune team up with ABC 7.

“His decision-making powers were so impressive, and there was so much confidence in him that people just naturally just wanted to follow him,” McFarlin said.

When Mattson wasn’t working, he spent time with his family or cheered for his favorite football team, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Mattson always had a positive outlook on life and made everyone feel special, his daughter Carol Heylmun said.

Mattson is survived by his wife, Geraldine; sister, Norene Hastings; sons Stephen and William; daughter Carol; eight grandchildren; and a great granddaughter.

Memorial donations can be made to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, 383 Main Ave., 5th floor, Norwalk, CT., 06851 or to the Plymouth Harbor Foundation, 700 John Ringling Blvd.