Former Pacific Sun publisher Stephen McNamara died of natural causes at his home in Mill Valley on November 24, 2025. He was 91.
McNamara operated the Pacific Sun for 38 years, until its sale to Embarcadero Media in 2004. It remains the longest-running alternative newsweekly in the United States.
The grandson of the founder of schoolbook publisher Scott Foresman, McNamara was born in Chicago and raised in Urbana, Illinois, by his mother and stepfather, a Shakespearean academic. McNamara graduated from Princeton University, which his grandfather, father and son also attended.
He began his career as a reporter working for the Twin-City Sentinel in North Carolina in 1955. He moved to California in 1960 and took a job at the San Francisco Examiner, where he worked his way up to Sunday editor. He purchased the Sun after six years at the Examiner, in 1966.
He was a founder and the first president of the National Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, now the Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN). Following his sale of the Sun to the Palo Alto publishing group, he led the revival of the award-winning San Quentin News inside California’s oldest state prison.
McNamara married Kay Copeland on September 22, 1976. Their marriage of nearly 50 years produced six children: Kevin, a film assistant director; Chris, a rock climber and BASE jumper; Natalie, a magazine publisher in Sonoma County; Marisa, a former San Francisco assistant district attorney; Lise, an occupational therapist in Denmark; and Morgan, a project manager for Apple in Japan.
A celebration of life will be held Thursday, August 6, 2026, at 2pm at The Outdoor Art Club in Mill Valley.
