William Woo, 69, top editor at St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS -- William F. Woo, a scholarly, soft-spoken journalist and columnist who guided the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as its editor for 10 years, died Wednesday of cancer at his home in Palo Alto, Calif. He was 69.

Mr. Woo had been a professor of journalism at Stanford University since he retired from the Post-Dispatch in 1996 and more recently also was director of the university's graduate journalism program. He was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in January 2005 and underwent treatment. He taught classes until only a few weeks ago.

Named editor in 1986 by Joseph Pulitzer Jr., Mr. Woo was the first editor of the Post-Dispatch who was not a member of the Pulitzer family.

Mr. Woo was born in Shanghai in 1936. His father, a native of China and a newspaper editor in Shanghai, had met his mother, a native of Kansas City, at the University of Missouri at Columbia. After World War II, his parents divorced, and Mr. Woo moved to Kansas City with his mother.

In a weekly column that Mr. Woo wrote during his years as editor, he often described memories of his parents as well as ordinary events in the lives of his three sons.

Three times, Mr. Woo was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize -- in 1971 for national reporting, in 1977 for foreign reporting, and in 1991 for commentary.

Emily Rauh Pulitzer, widow of Joseph Pulitzer Jr., called Mr. Woo ''a great person and a great journalist. He and my husband had a close relationship that came about through years of discussion about the editorial page and a shared vision of what the Post-Dispatch should be."

Terrance C.Z. Egger, publisher of the Post-Dispatch, called Mr. Woo ''a true gentleman who really loved the Post-Dispatch and was a dedicated editor and beautiful writer who often shared his thoughts about community, life and, especially, his family. This is a sad day for our industry and the Post-Dispatch."

Mr. Woo attended high school in Kansas City and began working as a copy clerk for the Kansas City Star in 1956, while in college. He became a reporter in 1957 and worked there until 1962, when he joined the Post-Dispatch as a feature writer. His writing caught the eye of Joseph Pulitzer Jr.

He attended Harvard University in 1966-1967 as a Nieman Fellow, an advanced journalism program, and moved to the Post-Dispatch's editorial page when he returned to St. Louis. He was editorial page editor for 13 years before being promoted to editor.

Colleagues spoke of Mr. Woo as an editor who led with his intellect. Former feature writer Robert Duffy called him ''my inspiration. He was a real scholar, a gentleman. He was a philosopher-king."

Margaret Freivogel, a former Washington reporter and editor, said most staff members knew him as polite and soft-spoken. ''The longer you knew him, the more you realized that the calm exterior contained a fierce interior -- fiercely devoted to the principles of good journalism, fiercely committed to his family, fiercely determined to live life to its fullest."

Married twice before, Mr. Woo married Martha Shirk, then a reporter at the Post-Dispatch, in 1981.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Woo leaves their three sons, Thomas of Santa Monica, Calif., Bennett, a junior at St. Louis University, and Peter of Palo Alto; three brothers, Robert C. of St. Louis, and John and Willie of New York; and two sisters, Wendy of San Mateo, Calif., and Elizabeth Li of Hong Kong.