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Looney -- Ralph Looney, 76, was a resident of Albuquerque since 1952. Mr. Looney is survived by his wife of 56 years, Clarabel Looney of Albuquerque; brother, Don Looney of Warner Robbins, GA; and he was preceded in death by his parents, A.Z. and Cansada Looney; and his brother, Arno Looney. Friends and colleagues of former Tribune editor Ralph Looney remember him as a tough and talented newspaperman with a good sense of what his readers wanted and a love and passion for the people and culture of New Mexico. "In my opinion, editors are judged by the quality of newspapers they publish, the character and quality of the journalists who works for them, and by the respect their peers have for them," said Alan M. Horton, senior vice president for newspapers for the E.W. Scripps Co., which owns The Tribune. "In all three of those categories, any fair-minded person would have to rank Ralph Looney right at the top." Looney, an author and award-winning journalist who was editor of The Tribune from 1978-1980, died Monday morning at an Albuquerque facility that cares for people with Alzheimer's disease. Funeral services will be at 10:00 a.m. Friday at French Mortuary, Wyoming Chapel, 7121 Wyoming Blvd. NE. Burial will follow at Sunset Memorial Park, 924-C Menaul Blvd. NE. Visitation will be from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Thursday, at the mortuary. Although Looney ended his career as editor of the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, he spent most of it with The Tribune. "He was one of the better editors of The Tribune," said Howard Bryan, a retired Tribune reporter and columnist who worked with four Tribune editors. "He knew what interested people. Looney was interested in the history of the state as well as the news of the day. And he took a personal interest in the people who worked for him. We weren't just bylines to him." Looney took the time to work one-on-one with promising Tribune staffers. Tim Gallagher, now president and editor of the Ventura County (Calif.) Star, recalled the day in 1978 when he, then a cub reporter for The Tribune, was ushered into Looney's office. "I had just started on the police beat and had only been working for the paper a month or two," Gallagher said. "Ralph said, `I think you are really talented and that you are going to have a great career, but you can't write worth a darn.'" Looney then pulled out a handful of stories Gallagher had written and showed the young reporter how each of them could have been better. Looney left The Tribune in 1980 to go to the Rocky Mountain News. If his time in Denver was notable for intense competition, his newspaper days in Albuquerque were remarkable for the colorful and important stories covered by The Tribune. Those included the anti-Vietnam War protests on the University of New Mexico campus in the late 1960s and early 1970s, a dangerous and destructive riot that started at Roosevelt Park in June 1971, the historic crossing of the Atlantic by three Albuquerque balloonists in 1978, the Lobogate basketball scandal in 1979-80 and the deadly riot at the Penitentiary of New Mexico in Santa Fe in 1980. Looney, a newspaperman right down to his socks, took those kinds of stories in stride, working them for all they were and relishing his role in telling them to the public. He viewed his occupation as a privilege and a responsibility, not just a way to make a living. Newspapers are the best business in the world. He also wrote two books "Haunted Highways," a collection of tales about New Mexico ghost towns, in 1968, and "O'Keeffe and Me: A Treasured Friendship" in 1995, the story of his amicable association with famous New Mexico artist Georgia O'Keeffe. Clara often traveled with Ralph when he was working on stories on his own time. They interviewed and photographed Georgia O'Keeffe at the artist's Abiquiu home in May 1962. Looney considered his years in Denver some of the most exhilarating in his career, but he did not hesitate to return to Albuquerque after he retired. It was this city that he and Clara considered home. Before illness overtook him, Looney had planned to write more books one about the tough-minded, gutsy, one-of-a-kind people he had met in his career and another about his life in the newspaper business. He didn't like being retired, being idle.
        Published on: Fri September 08, 2000