Sanford "Sandy" H. Stiles

Stiles, Sanford H. ?Sandy,? 83, of St. Petersburg, died Wednesday October 22, 2003 at Bayfront Medical Center after a short illness. He was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts and when he was 5 years old, he sold his first subscription for the St. Petersburg Times. He and his parents were living in a tent they pitched after they fled Connecticut?s cold weather and came here in 1924. With no road map, they used a geography book to find St. Petersburg. The youngster found a newsboy and told him his father wanted a paper delivered to the tent, which sat on land the family had bought for a new home. Mr. Stiles retired in 1984 as the Corporate Marketing Director for the newspaper after 45 years at the Times. ?He was just about the most multi-dexterous newspaper guy I ever met,? former Times executive editor Robert J. Haiman said in a statement. ?He could report the news, do features, edit copy, take and edit photos, put out a feature section, edit a Sunday magazine, run a radio show, organize a parade, put on a banquet, set up a basketball tournament, create a brochure and do the annual corporate report.? A 1937 St. Petersburg High School graduate, Mr. Stiles got a taste for newspaper writing with an interview of Babe Ruth for the Palmetto and Pine school paper. At the Times, he started his career in 1937 as a proofreader. A year later he was a copy boy. At 19, he was a police reporter; at 20, assistant city editor; at 21, assistant sports editor; at 22, sports editior. World War II called him away in 1943, and perhaps his newspaper experience won him an assignment to promote the premiere of Irving Berlin?s This is the Army show in Jacksonville. He later became editior in Tampa of the Drew Field Echoes, which was printed at the Times. While editor of Drew Field Echoes, the paper was honored by the Camp Newspaper Service and the New York Newspaper Guild as the best G.I. newspaper published by the U. S. Armed Forces. In 1947 he left the Times to work for Webb?s City, the renowned one-stop downtown shopping center. As the Webb?s City Sportsman, he did a daily show on radio station WSUN, interviewing the likes of Stan Musial, Sam Snead and Primo Carnera. Later he drove all over Georgia, trying to persuade farmers to put up highway billboards advertising Webb?s City, ?the world?s most unusual drug store.? Then Mr. Stiles realized his heart was in newspapers. He returned to the Times to head the composing room, then served as news features editor before becoming public service and promotion manager in 1963. He became corporate marketing director in 1980. A long-time member of the International Newspaper Promotion Association, Mr. Stiles served as its President in 1983-84. During that period he spoke before meetings of newspaper executives in Australia, the British Isles, Europe and the United States. In 1984 the St. Petersburg Advertising Federation awarded him the American Advertising Federation Silver Medal. After his retirement in 1984 from the St. Petersburg Times and until his death, he worked as a consultant to the Presidents of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, which owns the Times: Haiman, former Philadelphia Inquirer managing editor James Naughton and Karen Brown Dunlap. ?Sandy knew just about everybody in St. Petersburg and everyone who met him liked him,? Haiman said. ?And once they got to know him better, and discovered what a truly sweet man he was, they loved him.? ?Sandy was old school in principles but up-to-the-minute in knowledge of the craft of telling the news,? Naughton said. ?He was a writer, a broadcaster, a marketer and, though he cherished his old manual typewriter, in the last few years he mastered e-mail.? Naughton added: ?Who could resist this elfin man who, at 83, tooled around in a little white car he called ?Snoopy??? One of Mr. Stiles? fondest memories was serving as coach of the Webb?s City Little Major League team from 1954-1957. His teams accumulated a record of 68 wins and 2 losses, winning 2 city championships. His St. Petersburg Florida Little Major League All Stars won the State Championship in 1957 and formed the nucleus of the Northeast High School baseball team that won the state title in 1962. Survivors include his wife of 63 years, Dorothy; a son, Chris, St. Petersburg; two daughters, Tracy Stites, Seminary, Miss., and Laurie Dietrich, Brooksville; six grandchildren: Michael King, Matthew King, Allison Stiles Marshall, Scott Stiles, Kent Reed, and Kyle Reed; and eight great-grandchildren. A memorial service will be at 1 p.m. Monday at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, 1200 Snell Isle Blvd. NE. The family suggests memorial contributions to the Sandy Stiles Fellowship for Leadership at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, 801 Third St. S., St. Petersburg, FL 33701. Anderson-McQueen Funeral Homes & Cremation Tribute Center-Ninth Street Chapel.