Mitchell L. Blumenthal

Blumenthal, 68, was a consummate newsman for more than 40 years. For nearly half of his career, Blumenthal worked at the New York Times, including a long stint as the Sunday New Jersey editor. He also served as assistant national editor, assistant metro editor, and on the news desk and in the Washington bureau. More recently, Blumenthal was an editor at the Star Ledger, where he also served as deputy editor of the Trenton bureau.

Blumenthal started his career in journalism as a reporter at the Atlantic City Press in the early 1970s and then worked at the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel in Florida. He then returned to his native Philadelphia to be features editor and news editor at the Bulletin, an afternoon daily.

He then took a job in the early 1980s with the Washington Star, where he met his future wife, Robin Goldwyn Blumenthal. The couple were married in 1981, after moving to Chicago when the Star folded. Blumenthal worked at the Chicago Sun Times before heading to New York for a job at New York Newsday.

In addition to his wife of 35 years, Blumenthal is survived by his son, Bret, and his daughters, Betsy and Anna. Funeral services will be held Sunday, May 14, at Bernheim-Apter-Kreitzman Funeral Home in Livingston, NJ. Donations can be made to the American Civil Liberties Union, the Committee to Protect Journalists, or the New York Times Student Subscription Program.

Blumenthal was a dogged newshound, and a lover of tennis baseball, and music. He never met a prime rib he didn't like, or a New Jersey politician he wouldn't rib.