Remembering former Daily Sundial editor in chief Bob Pool

The local journalism community is mourning the passing of one of our alums: Bob Pool, former editor in chief of the Daily Sundial who went on to be a masterful storyteller for the Los Angeles Times for more than 30 years.Pool was only 15 years old when he made arrangements to cover the Democratic National Convention at the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1960 for his mother’s Alabama hometown newspaper. Pool witnessed history as John F. Kennedy was nominated by his party before going on to win the White House. 

Pool served as editor of the Canoga Park High School student newspaper before leading the Daily Sundial and graduating from CSUN in 1968, then called San Fernando Valley State College. After being drafted into the Army and spending two years in Honolulu, Pool worked as a reporter for the Thousand Oaks News-Chronicle (now the Ventura County Star) before being hired at the L.A. Times in 1983 as a general assignment reporter. Although he covered a lot of breaking news and did some investigative journalism, his specialty was human-interest pieces. “Bob wrote about people who would not have had a moment in the sun the way they did had they not crossed paths,” Times Managing Editor Hector Becerra said in Pool’s obituary. “He specialized in telling stories that would not have existed had it not been for Bob Pool.” Memorial services are pending.

Pool’s family has asked that memorial donations in his memory be made to the CSUN Journalism Department. Checks can be made payable to the CSUN Foundation (Memo: Journalism Department in Memory of Bob Pool) and mailed to CSUN Foundation, Valera Hall Suite 110, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge, CA 91330-8296. Online donations can be made by clicking this link: CSUN Journalism in Memory of Bob Pool