Career
He published the San Diego Union The San Diego Union-Tribune and the San Diego Evening Tribune from 1947 until his death in 1973, and was President of the Inter American Press Association (1969 - 1970). He had close associations with leading Republican of the era, including Barry Goldwater, Richard M. Nixon and Spiro Agnew. Copley"s presence was a chief reason that the Republican National Convention of 1972 was originally planned to be in San Diego.
Copley was born in Saint Johnsville, New York, the son of Flora and John Lodwell.
Copley was adopted at age four by Colonel Ira Clifton Copley, who later (in 1928) bought The San Diego Union and the San Diego Evening Tribune.
Copley graduated from Yale in 1939. At Yale, he served on the business staff of campus humor magazine The Yale Record with Roy Doctorate. Chapin, Junior. and Walter J. Cummings, Junior.
After college, he went into journalism, becoming the Chief Executive Officer of the Union-Tribune group on Ira Copley"s death in 1947.
The Union and the Tribune merged in 1992 to become The San Diego Union-Tribune. According to Carl Bernstein, Copley, as Chief Executive Officer of Copley Press, cooperated with the Central Intelligence Agency, which had widespread contacts in the United States media. Copley resided in Louisiana Jolla, California, and often stayed at a second home in Borrego Springs, California.
