J.Y. Smith, 74; First Official Obituary Editor for Washington Post

J.Y. Smith, 74, a former foreign correspondent who became the Washington Post’s first official obituary editor, died Jan. 17 of lung cancer at his home in Annandale, Va.

Smith was credited with raising the standards for obituary writing during his tenure as editor from 1977 to 1988. His oversight of obituary coverage coincided with the rise of AIDS, which led him to articulate the paper’s policy of publishing the cause of death whenever possible.

Responding to criticism of the Post for divulging that a prominent activist had died of AIDS, he wrote in 1987 that “the newspaper has a duty to reflect the world as it really is. That is the whole point of journalism, and it is the single best reason for citing AIDS as a cause of death.”

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Smith was educated at Harvard and served in the Marine Corps during the Korean War. He launched his journalism career in 1958 as a reporter for United Press International, which eventually posted him to foreign bureaus, including Moscow, London and Warsaw.

He joined the Post in 1965, serving as an assistant foreign editor and metropolitan reporter before being tapped to oversee obituary coverage. He wrote many obituaries, including those on silent-screen legend Charlie Chaplin, track star Jesse Owens, essayist and author E.B. White and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.