City editor of Bellingham Herald dies at 41

BELLINGHAM - Leo Mullen, an award-winning journalist and city editor at The Bellingham Herald, has died at age 41.

He suffered cardiac arrest at the YMCA on Wednesday and died Friday night at St. Joseph Hospital.

Mr. Mullen, who joined The Herald as a reporter in 1987 and became city editor 10 years later, was a newsroom leader who inspired co-workers with his integrity and quest for truth, said Managing Editor Evan Miller.

Mr. Mullen grew up in Doylestown, Pa., and Centralia, Mo. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism in 1983, interned at the Kansas City Star and then joined The News-Leader, a Gannett newspaper in Springfield, Mo. When he transferred to The Herald, also owned by Gannett, he became the paper's rural reporter.