Eugne Cryer

With his booming voice, steely eyes and a red pencil that would mark up the daily newspaper with with­ering critiques, Gene Cryer cast an intimidating pres­ence over the Sun Sentinel newsroom he led in the 1980s and 1990s. But those who worked under Cryer, who died Saturday at 80 af­ter complications from a stroke, fondly remembered him as the consummate edi­tor, journalist and commu­nity leader.

"He expected and de­manded perfection,': said Earl Maucker, who served as managing editor under Cryer for 14 years until he succeeded him as editor in 1994. "He used to say, 'We're not a writer's paper, we're · not an editor's paper, we're a reader's paper.' Every­thing he did was with the readers' best interests in
mind.''
Cryer guided the South Florida Sun Sentinel from a sleepy Fort Lauderdale newspaper into a regional media force. He came to the Fort Lauderdale News in 1979 from Rockford, IL.

He oversaw a period of explosive growth in the re­gion, expanding the news­p aper with bureaus in Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Miami and West Palm Beach. He also hired young, 'ambitious reporters who would go on to become re­nowned authors and novel­ists, including Mitch Af­bom, Michael Connelly and John Grogan.

Since his 1994 retirement as Sun Sentinel editor and v.ice president, Cryer lived in Plantation and wrote eight books. He remained active by riding, exhibiting and breeding Appaloosa show horses, mentoring writers and recording au­diobooks for Insight for the Blind.

That deep, bellowing voice could command a room,'' said his son, Scott Cryer, of Reston, Va ''In his final years he put it to good use by working with Insight for the Blind. It gave him a sense of purpose.''

Scott Cryer was bedside in his father's hospital room in his final days, talking sports and sharing emails from friends and former colleagues. "In a way, he got to hear his own eulogy,'' Scott Cryer said.

"He was a self-made man,'' said his daughter, Patty Shepherd. ''He came from humble beginnings - his father was an auto me­chanic during the Great De­pression in Illinois -and with hard work he made himself a great career.''

Born in Morris, ill, Cryer graduated with a journal­ism degree from Southern Illinois University and start­ed as a reporter and editor for small Illinois news­papers.

Besides Scott and Patty, Cryer is survived by son Mi­chael and daughter Cath­leen Cryer Steines, three grandchildren and one greatgrandchild. He is pre­deceased by grandson Brant Shepherd.

Serenity Memorial Chapels has been entrusted with the funeral arrangements.