Bryce AldertonBill Doner can trace much of...

Bryce Alderton

Bill Doner can trace much of what he learned in life to his days as a

newspaperman.

The Newport Beach native who was the sports editor of the Daily

Pilot for five years in the 1960s moved in February to Bermuda Dunes

in the Southern California desert, but still maintains close ties to

the Newport-Mesa area.

He did after all grow up here for a majority of his life,

attending Ensign Intermediate before playing tennis at Newport Harbor

High and subsequently at Orange Coast College.

Doner was a senior on the Harbor 1956 tennis team that went to the

CIF Playoffs under Glenn Bassett, who went on to guide the men’s

program at UCLA.

While in high school, Doner would write as a stringer at the Costa

Mesa Globe Herald before it bought the Newport News Press in what

would become the Daily Pilot.

For a short time, he even guided the engraving machines at the

Globe Herald.

A “stringer,” it should be noted, was and is someone who writes

for a newspaper on a part-time basis. A free-lancer, if you will.

“The newspaper business provided the foundation for me to make my

way in marketing, or anything,” Doner said. “Working for a newspaper

opened doors for me.”

During his days as a sports editor in the mid-60s, the Pilot’s

circulation called for coverage of Newport Harbor, Corona del Mar,

Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Westminster and Mater Dei high schools,

Southern California College and his favorite, Orange Coast College,

when the JCs were enjoying the last of their glory era before the

national era put them on the back pages, and subsequently right off

the pages at the metropolitan dailies.

The beat at the Daily Pilot was also into the Dodgers, Angels,

Lakers, USC, UCLA, and the horses.

Those at the Pilot who still remember Doner recall him as funny,

flamboyant and with an irrelevant style.

Doner pursued a career in marketing when he left the Daily Pilot,

venturing into the auto racing field where he eventually owned nine

race tracks in California, Seattle and Portland and also spent three

years in the 1980s as vice president of marketing for Caesar’s Palace

in Las Vegas.

He now owns a marketing consulting company -- William Doner and

Associates -- and studies potential revenue streams for what an NFL

team would bring to Southern California.

“I can’t do anything as far as deciding if a team will come or

not, but I have worked for the (San Diego) Chargers, San Francisco

49ers and (Minnesota) Vikings,” Doner said. “The last two years I

worked on ideas for turning the suites at the Kentucky Derby into

luxury boxes.”

As with any profession, not all marketing ideas are agreed upon,

according to Doner.

“Sometimes it’s fun, sometimes it isn’t,” said Doner of his job.

“Everything’s not always going to be wonderful and what you present

is not necessarily what the owners want to hear.”

Doner has lived in Seattle and New Mexico and spent some time in

Australia. In 1982 he caught a 1,234-pound black marlin, the largest

in the world that year. Los Angeles Times sports editor Bill Dwyre

asked Doner, who is single, to create a spread about his travels down

under.

One of his fondest memories was covering the Angels and Dodgers

for the Pilot in the ‘60s and he said much has changed in the

newspaper business since then.

“Now, if you aren’t delving into drug issues or something

controversial, it makes it that much tougher,” Doner said. “Things

that I remember are the Dodgers sweeping the Yankees in the World

Series, events that were positive.”

Doner has two sons, Jeffrey and Brian, along with a granddaughter,

Tess.