Jon Talton, who was a business editor and columnist for a half-dozen newspapers before becoming a prolific author of fiction books, has died.
Talton was a reporter and business editor at the San Diego Blade Tribune, business editor of the Beaumont Enterprise, business editor of the Dayton Daily News, assistant business editor and columnist at The Rocky Mountain News, assistant managing editor for business at The Cincinnati Enquirer, executive business editor and columnist at The Charlotte Observer and a business columnist for The Arizona Republic and Seattle Times.
His columns have appeared in newspapers throughout North America on the New York Times News Service and other news services. His most-recent column ran in the Sunday Seattle Times.
At Dayton, he was part of a team that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Public Service, for the nation’s first computer-assisted report on worker safety. In Charlotte, the business section was honored as one of the nation’s best by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.
He was a Knight Western Fellow in Journalism at the University of Southern California and a community fellow at the Morrison Institute at Arizona State University.
He also wrote 14 books, including the David Mapstone mystery series. Talton also wrote a book on the history of Phoenix.
