Paul Janensch, age 86, most recently of Bridgeport, CT, passed away peacefully on July 15th with his wife and daughter by his side. Born Carl Paul Janensch Jr. on November 26, 1938, in Evanston, IL, Paul was the son of Carl Paul Janensch Sr. and Ruth Enright Janensch of Winnetka, IL, Long Lake, IL, and Vero Beach, FL. Paul was a graduate of Georgetown University and the Columbia University School of Journalism.

Paul was a top editor for several newspapers over a long and illustrious career. He was the former executive editor of The Courier-Journal and Louisville Times, based in Louisville, Kentucky. During his 23-year tenure, he covered Martin Luther King's march to Selma, created the first ombudsman function for a modern North American newspaper, and managed staffers who won a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of refugee camps in Southeast Asia. Paul also was a top editor at the Philadelphia Daily News, The Journal News in Rockland County, NY, and the Telegram and Gazette in Worcester, MA. Throughout his career he was known for recruiting and promoting women and minority news professionals.

For 14 years Paul was a professor of journalism to undergraduate and graduate students at Quinnipiac University where he was granted tenure, retiring in 2009. While at Quinnipiac he co-wrote Dear Eva, a nonfiction play based on love letters from World War II and the script of Famine Echoes about Ireland's Great Hunger. He also taught students studying in Ireland and was appointed a writing adjunct for Ireland's Great Hunger Museum at the university. While at the university and into his retirement, Paul was a radio commentator at NPR-affiliated stations in Connecticut, Florida, and New York.

Throughout his career, Paul advocated for good journalism domestically and internationally. He held leadership roles in numerous professional organizations, advised newly-independent newspapers in Russia, and delivered multiple lectures on the American news media in Beijing.

Paul was an avid boater wherever he lived, including on Long Lake and Lake Michigan, the Ohio River, the Hudson River, Narragansett Bay, the Indian River, and Long Island Sound. As a young man he saved a man from drowning after he fell overboard, jumped ramps on waterskis, and earned a varsity letter in sailing at Georgetown. Throughout his adult life he spent many warm weekends and evenings with his family as Captain Paul sailing and exploring coves and waterways.

Devoted husband, father, and grandfather, Paul is survived by his wife, Gail Evans Janensch; adult children, Laurel Syah (Anto) of Westport, CT, William Janensch of New York City, and Michael Janensch (Philip Ficks) of Cincinnati, OH; and grandchildren, Adam and Lukas Syah, also of Westport, CT. Other surviving family members include Harriet Janensch, Pat Janensch, Ernest Janensch, Beth Hansson-Hoffman and her adult children, Haley and Olie, Jane Hansson, Katie and Warren Anderson, and their adult children, Kelsey Gonzales and Rosie Anderson. His siblings, Susan and Christopher, predeceased him.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the School Sisters of Notre Dame: www.atlanticmidwest.org/give/online. A Jesuit Catholic, Paul respected and appreciated the joy, compassion, and intellect they brought to their shared community at 3030 Park Avenue (previously known as The Watermark).

To learn more about Paul's life, please visit his Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Janensch .