Honoring Lynn Ludlow, 1933–2025

A mentor to generations of students and a bedrock presence through four decades in San Francisco newsrooms, Ludlow served as editor of the Golden Gater in spring 1953. He later worked as a lecturer, publication advisor and writing coach for SF State journalism students from 1967 to 1987.

In an October 1952 byline covering a proposed loyalty oath for faculty during the McCarthy-era “Red Scare,” Ludlow, then an 18-year-old managing editor, revealed the courageous values and ethical compass that would define his distinguished career. Set in boldface type at the bottom of the piece, he wrote:

This observer finds it extremely difficult to maintain a “hands-off” journalistic detachment with the loyalty issue.

The respect accorded to the rights of minority groups in a democracy is in danger of being cancelled out through just such laws as the Levering Act.

As the fundamental right of disagreement is abrogated, our nation has greater difficulty in having its “freedom-loving” hypocrisy accepted by the rest of the world; we move a step closer to the “loyal” tyranny of Soviet Russia.

During more than 50 years in journalism, Ludlow covered some of the most consequential stories and newsmakers of his era. As a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner, he was dispatched to Selma for Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic march to Montgomery and to Saigon after the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War. In San Francisco, Ludlow wrote lead stories on the assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, as well as the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

In 2007, Melba Beals (’71) – one of the “Little Rock Nine” who defied segregation orders in Arkansas in 1957 before earning a journalism degree from SF State – recalled Ludlow’s influence to SF State Magazine:

"Much of what I am I owe to the teachers and friends I met there," she says. Much of the credit, she says, goes to Lynn Ludlow, a former SF State journalism instructor.

Beals first came to know Ludlow, a highly regarded reporter and editor for the Hearst Examiner and San Francisco Chronicle, in a newswriting class. Beneath Beals' timidity and self-doubt, Ludlow saw the makings of a first-rate writer. She recalls his advice: "Melba, you're a writer, but it takes a lot longer to write than you think, so start now."

Beals was then raising a young daughter, but she nevertheless managed to start producing articles for the college newspaper, The Golden Gater. Later, as she prepared for graduation, Ludlow learned of a scholarship for minority students to study graduate-level journalism at Columbia University. Ludlow told Beals that if she wrote an essay about herself, he'd mail it for her. "When I came back to school next week, he said, "Pack your bags, girl, you're leaving.'"

On his website Tardy Times, and later on Substack with his True Yarns, Ltd., Ludlow shared meticulously detailed, sharply penned recollections of San Francisco journalism, city history, and goings-on with SF State Journalism alumni.

On Saturday, August 23, at 3 p.m. a memorial celebration for Ludlow will be held at the Polish Club of San Francisco.

Ludlow is survived by his wife Margo Freistadt and five children.

• Lynn Ludlow obituary, by Steve Rubenstein, San Francisco Chronicle
• True Yarns, Ltd.
• The Tardy Times