A 48-year-old newsroom executive at The Baltimore Sun died Monday in a traffic collision in northern Baltimore County that left his 9-year-old daughter in critical condition.
Timothy M. Wheatley, former assistant managing editor for sports who since May had been business editor, lived on Corbett Road with his wife, daughter and two teenage sons.
Mr. Wheatley was driving his youngest child, Sarah, to school when the accident occurred at York and Corbett roads, two miles from the family's home. Mr. Wheatley was turning left onto southbound York Road when his 1999 Honda Civic was hit broadside by a northbound United Parcel Service truck driven by Kevin P. Callahan, 28, said Elise Armacost, a Baltimore County Fire Department spokeswoman.
The force from the impact sent the truck into a field. Mr. Wheatley died at the scene.
Sarah Wheatley was rushed to Sinai Hospital and later transferred to Johns Hopkins Children's Center, where she was reported to be in critical condition and being treated for head injuries, police said.
The intersection where the collision occurred is controlled by a relatively new traffic signal, which operates on a different sequence during school hours. Police are continuing to investigate the crash.
In a hastily convened mid-morning newsroom meeting, Sun staffers were informed of Mr. Wheatley's death by J. Montgomery Cook, the paper's editor.
"Our hearts are heavy with loss," Mr. Cook said in a statement released later, calling Mr. Wheatley "a terrific journalist and an accomplished editor."
Mr. Wheatley's 30-year career as a newspaperman and editor began when he was attending Dorman High School in Spartanburg, S.C., and covering high school sports for the Herald-Journal.
After earning a bachelor's degree in accounting in 1983 from Wofford College in Spartanburg, he went to work as a sports writer for the Herald-Journal.
He worked for several years as assistant sports editor at the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, before being named deputy sports editor in 1989 at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
Before coming to Baltimore in 2006 as assistant managing editor for sports, he was assistant managing editor for sports at The Indianapolis Star for six years, where his section routinely won national awards. In early 2006, his Sunday section and special sections were named among the Top 10 in the nation by the Associated Press Sports Editors.
"He was not only the best sports editor I ever worked with, but it's my conclusion that he was one of the best in America," said Timothy A. Franklin, former editor of The Baltimore Sun and now director of the National Sports Journalism Center at the Indiana University School of Journalism.
"He was viewed nationally as a guy who could consistently produce one of the best sports sections in the country. He did that in Indianapolis and he did it in Baltimore," said Mr. Franklin, who had hired Mr. Wheatley in Indianapolis and later brought him to Baltimore.
Dennis R. Ryerson, editor and vice president of the Indianpolis Star, said, "Tim knew how to get the best work out of people and he truly understood the balance between work and family. He really cared about both and conveyed that to those around him."
Arnie Robbins who had been executive sports editor at the Minneapolis Star Tribune is now editor of The St. Louis-Post Dispatch.
"Tim was a real leader in a very low-key way and people enjoyed working with and for him because of that. He saw the good in people, and even though he was optimistic by nature, he wasn't blind to things when they weren't working," Mr. Robbins said. "Wherever Tim went, he made things better."
Ron Fritz, who had been sports editor at the News-Journal in Wilmington, Del., was hired by Mr. Wheatley as executive sports editor at The Sun in 2006. "He was the reason I came to Baltimore. We had both been sports editors for Gannett and I was looking for a mentor and I couldn't have found a better person," said Mr. Fritz. "He led us through tough times and was a strong leader when we needed one."
When Mr. Wheatley moved from sports to business five months ago after a series of staff reductions, "he was a calming presence in an environment that had the potential of being opposite of calm," said economic columnist Jay Hancock. "It was a topsy-turvy time, and as he settled into his new chair, he brought calm, and the staff responded."
"Tim had a great bedside manner as an editor that saved me from stupid mistakes. Also, he wasn't a one-trick pony. He had a wide variety of interests," Mr. Hancock said.
Mr. Wheatley was a member of Grace Fellowship Church in Timonium, where he was involved as a youth ministry leader for middle school students.
Plans for services were incomplete Monday.
Also surviving are his wife of 20 years, the former Beth Rhodes; two sons, David, 16, and Will, 14; his parents, Wilford and Theresa Wheatley of Blufton, S.C.; a brother, Paul Wheatley of Orlando, Fla.; and a sister, Donna Troup of Fairfax, Va.
