Stan Hinden, 90, former Newsday editorial page editor

Stan Hinden, one of Newsday’s early political writers and editorial page editors, died Tuesday at the age of 90 in California.

Hinden, who later worked for 23 years as an editor and financial journalist for The Washington Post, spent the early part of his career covering Long Island, New York State and national politics for Newsday. He covered the administration of Republican Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, chronicled the career of Democratic Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and wrote editorials about President Richard M. Nixon.

Born in New York City, Hinden was raised in Far Rockaway.

Hinden started at Newsday in 1952 and worked for the newspaper’s founders Alicia Patterson and Harry Guggenheim. He lived in Wantagh until he became the paper’s national correspondent and was sent to Washington, D.C., in 1970 by publisher Bill Moyers.

“We grew up on Long Island and I spent many days at Newsday with him,” his son Alan Hinden said.

Hinden served as an Army technician and a journalist for the Army in Japan, his son said. After his service, he attended Syracuse University and graduated in 1950.

At Newsday, Hinden dove into his work.

“He worked all the time,” Alan Hinden recalled. “I have great memories of him working on his manual typewriters and to this day remember him banging on that typewriter.”

Alan Hinden, 63, who sells copiers, said his father corresponded by mail with Albany politicians, and the house in Wantagh often was filled with guests including the Guggenheims and influential public officials. Alan Hinden recalled watching the 1969 moon landing with his father in Harry Guggenheim’s office and sitting next to Nixon during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

“Back then, I don’t think politics was as mean and dirty as it is now, at least out in the open,” Alan Hinden said. “Everything was done by letter or phone. I never got from my father that politics was mean. He lived for that. I don’t think he ever wrote a mean article.”

Hinden left Newsday in 1971 to work as editor of the National Journal in Washington. He joined The Washington Post in 1973, and stayed there until retiring in 1996.

He continued to write a retirement column for the Post and wrote a book, “How to Retire Happy,” which chronicled his wife’s Alzheimer’s disease and death in its fourth edition in 2013.

Hinden moved from Maryland last year to Mission Viejo, Calif., where he was treated for dementia and a heart condition. He died at a Mission Viejo care facility.

Hinden was preceded in death by his wife of 60 years, Sara Leopold Hinden. He is survived by his three children, Alan Hinden of Gaithersburg, Maryland, Lawrence Hinden of Mission Viejo, and Pamela Hinden of the Bronx; four grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

His funeral and burial are scheduled for Sunday at Judean Memorial Gardens, 16225 Batchellors Forest Rd., Olney, Md.

By John Asbury

john.asbury@newsday.comJohnAsbury

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.