Joe McGuff, 79, former editor of Kansas City Star

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Joe McGuff, 79, former editor of The Kansas City Star and member of the board of directors for the Royals baseball team, has died.

Mr. McGuff, who was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease in 1999, died Saturday night at his home, the newspaper reported.

He started at the paper in 1948 as a sports reporter and became a columnist in 1966, covering the Kansas City sports scene for 38 years. In 1986, Mr. McGuff was named editor and vice president of The Star and The Kansas City Times and oversaw the merger of the morning and afternoon newspapers. He retired from the newspaper in April 1992, the same month The Star won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting.