Kenneth F. Rystrom, Jr., 81, former editor of The Columbian (Vancouver, WA) editorial page and retired journalism professor, died in Eugene, Oregon, on August 4, 2013, from complications of a stroke six months earlier. Until shortly before his death he had lived in Florence, OR, to be near his children and grandchildren.

He was born in Bayard Nebraska to Kenneth Rystrom, Sr, and Zella Rystrom (ne’ Borland). Ken published his first newspaper on a toy printing press and received a reprimand from his kindergarten teacher for interviewing the girls for his paper. For a few years in the 1940s, he published the Chimney Rock Press, and learned to be a printer on the Bayard paper. He became an Eagle Scout. In 1954 he was graduated with a journalism degree and high honors from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, where he was named to the honorary Innocents Society, and edited The Daily Nebraskan. He was a Phi Beta Kappa, member of several honorary societies and of Kappa Sigma. He received his Master’s in Political Science from University of California, Berkeley, the following year and then served in Korea in the US Army.

He began his adult newspaper career in Vancouver, WA, in 1956, at The Columbian and became an editorial writer for the Des Moines Register and Tribune from 1960-64, moving back to Vancouver