Ventura
paper owner San Marchi dies
VENTURA (AP) -- Jeffrey San Marchi, who for two decades owned, wrote, edited, published
and distributed a biweekly paper called the Ojai and Ventura Voice, has died
while stocking a news rack, his friends said. He was 57.
San
Marchi had a heart attack Sunday evening while
placing the paper at Ventura Harbor and was pronounced dead at a hospital less
than an hour later, said the paper’s photo and music editor, Ray Alpern. “He collapsed and people tried to help him,” said
Cathy Elliott Jones, a friend for 11 years. “But he, being Jeff, got up on his
own, but he collapsed again.”
San
Marchi started the newspaper from his home in Ojai in
1988. He recently ran it from his home office in Oak View, said another friend,
Rellis Smith. San Marchi
was always a “champion of the underdog” and had a special interest in local
politics, Smith said.
“If
he thought politicians did something wrong, he was going to point it out,”
Smith said.
With
San Marchi’s death, it was unclear whether the paper
would continue to be published. “Jeff was a quirky character,” Alpern said. “The newspaper was his life. Putting out a
32-plus-page paper every two weeks took over his life, and on top of that, he
was an investigative reporter himself. I don’t think one man could do it like
he did.”
San
Marchi is survived by his daughters, Ana, of
Glendale, Ariz., and Rosa, of Phoenix.