Longtime Mercury News reporter Frank Sweeney dies at 78
Over 37-year career, he covered environment, aviation, weather, politics, breaking news and more
Over his 37-year career at the Mercury News, Frank Sweeney earned a reputation as a journalist who could cover whatever news of the day crossed his desk.
“Sweeney was a go-to staffer who could always deliver well-researched, easy-to-read stories on any topic and deliver them ahead of deadline,” former colleague Lou Calvert recalled of their days together at the newspaper.
Sweeney, who retired in 2004, died Aug. 22 of complications from a rare neuromuscular disease. He was 78. Survivors include his wife of 50 years, Sharon Klino Sweeney.
His versatility was recognized by the paper’s top brass.
“Frank, I think it’s fair to say, can write about anything. And after 37 years, he certainly has — crime, politics, science, environment … the list goes on,” Bert Robinson, the paper’s senior editor, wrote in an email to staff announcing Sweeney’s retirement.
The stories Sweeney wrote over the years did cover a wide range of subjects, from roof repairs at the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton to the Chowchilla kidnappings in 1976.
But, as Robinson would acknowledge, the veteran reporter also had specific areas of expertise. As a pilot, Sweeney loved covering the Reno Air Races and was the paper’s aviation expert. He became its authoritative voice on water issues and weather as well.
In the late 1990s, when Mercury News executives took an extraordinary interest in weather, for example, it was Sweeney who handled most stories — from the routine to major storm coverage and explanatory articles on El Nino.
Jan Null, a veteran meteorologist who has divided his career between the National Weather Service and his own consulting firm, Golden Gate Weather Services, credited Sweeney with being the inspiration for research into how deadly hot it can get inside an automobile in the summer.
“Back in 2001, I got a call from Frank. He said a 5-month-old child had died in a hot car in San Jose,” Null recalled. “He asked me how hot it could have gotten in that car.”
Null said he couldn’t find any studies on the topic and began his own, taking the temperature inside his vehicle for two consecutive years. “Eventually I published that with a couple ER doctors from Stanford in the American Academy of Pediatrics. That article is now the go-to paper in the world on the topic.”
On days when Sweeney wasn’t around, other reporters who were assigned a weather story benefited from a “how to do it” guide he left in the computer system to make their task easier.
That illustrates how his peers at the Mercury News remembered Sweeney, who, according to Calvert, was the first reporter hired by the paper in 1967 after its move to the former Ridder Park Drive offices.
Connie Skipitares began working at the paper a few years after Sweeney at a time when stories were knocked out on typewriters, not computer screens.
“You couldn’t just hit backspace and erase words you’d just typed,” she said. “I was always making mistakes and whipping copy paper out of the typewriter and starting all over. Not Frank. He’d nail down finished, polished copy right off the bat. I remember sitting near him and admiring how easy he made it look.”
Sweeney was born in Springfield, Illinois, on Oct. 26, 1942, and at age 9 moved with his family to Southern California, where they settled in Torrance. After graduating from Serra High School in nearby Gardena in 1960, he enrolled at El Camino College as a photography major before en
listing with the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve in 1961, becoming a sonarman trained in anti-submarine warfare.
Upon release from active duty, he returned to El Camino as a journalism major and in 1965 began attending San Jose State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism. He was hired by the Mercury News immediately after graduation.
His responsibilities at the paper, where he shared in the 1990 Pulitzer Prize award with the staff for its coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake, went beyond reporting to include stints as assistant city editor, state editor, night city editor and science editor.
In addition, he was an active member of the San Jose Newspaper Guild/ CWA Local 39098, serving as its president in 1980 and other terms as vice president and secretarytreasurer. He was also a member of every bargaining committee from 1976 until his retirement.
Luther Jackson, executive officer of the Guild from 1995 to 2009, described Sweeney as a caring and canny negotiator who was “always several steps ahead of management. I hope current and retired Guild members appreciate Frank’s role in the health care, pensions and other benefits that they enjoy.”
As a pilot, Sweeney logged time in 16 types of
aircraft ranging from a WWI biplane to jet fighters from the Soviet Union and U.S. Navy. In retirement, he was chairman of the San Jose Airport Commission and served on the Board of Directors of the Aero Club of Northern California.
He also enjoyed fishing, photography and restoring his British sports car, a 1959 MGA that he had owned for more than half a century.
Besides his wife, Sharon, he is survived by his brother George of Palos Verdes Estates and a number of cousins, nieces and nephews.
A celebration of life will be held at a later date.