Pioneering Catholic journalist dies

Ethel Gintoft, the first women to head the Catholic Press Association, died Wednesday at the age of 83. She was a bright and caring journalist and an esteemed colleague. For years she stood out as editor of the Catholic Herald, the Milwaukee archdiocesan newspaper, both because she maintained a highly professional publication and because it was still unusual for a women to hold such a post within the Catholic press.

Gintoft was successful, in large part, because she had the ear and trust of Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland who understood and respected independent journalism. He left it up to Gintoft to edit the Herald and she kept it as one among the very best of the diocesan newspapers in the Catholic press.