Managing Editor

Fred J. Archibald, former managing editor and associate publisher of the Frederick News-Post and a garden columnist, died Tuesday of cancer at Armadale Farms, his home near New Market in Frederick County. He was 78. A former General Motors public relations executive, Mr. Archibald joined the News-Post in 1976 as a performing-arts critic and a photojournalist. In 1978, he was named managing editor and was associate publisher from 1982 to 1985. After retiring several years ago, he continued writing a weekly garden column that the Frederick daily published on Thursdays.

Kathryn Christensen, a senior producer for ABC television prime time news and a former editor with the Wall Street Journal, has been named managing editor of The Sun.Christensen becomes the first woman managing editor in The Sun's 154-year history, and one of just 15 women managing editors at comparable American newspapers. She replaces James Houck, who resigned May 15. She is expected to start work Aug. 1."I think virtually everything attracts me about this job," Christensen said during a brief telephone interview yesterday from her office at ABC News in New York.

Anthony F. Barbieri, managing editor of The Sun, said yesterday that he would retire after a 34-year career at the paper. Barbieri, who expects to leave at the end of August, said he hopes to spend the last portion of his career teaching or giving back to journalism. "This is the right time to leave," said Barbieri, 57. "It is sort of time to turn a page." Timothy A. Franklin, who was named editor of The Sun in January, said he would begin a search for a managing editor immediately. "I am determined to find the best person in the nation for the job, a superb journalist who is completely dedicated to excellence and building on the great traditions of this great newspaper," Franklin said in a memo to the staff.

Anthony F. Barbieri, who joined The Sun 32 years ago as a copy boy and rose to oversee a staff of more than 100 metropolitan reporters and editors, was promoted yesterday to managing editor, the second-highest position in the newsroom. Barbieri, 52, replaces William K. Marimow, who was named editor of The Sun last month."His experience both as an editor and a reporter really covers the gamut of what the Baltimore Sun stands for," Marimow said of Barbieri. "He has really served with distinction."

George P. Hunt, 72, an artist and writer who was a former managing editor of Life magazine, died Saturday of cancer at his home in Hobe Sound, Fla. Mr. Hunt spent most of his career with Time Inc., starting in 1940 as an office boy. In 1961, he was named managing editor of Life, a post he held for 10 years.

John M. "Jack" Lemmon, managing editor of The Evening Su for the past 12 years, announced his retirement yesterday.Though Mr. Lemmon, 63, gave his official retirement date as Dec. 31, he said yesterday that "as a practical matter, today is my last day."During his tenure as the newspaper's top news executive, The Evening Sun received numerous awards, including a Pulitzer Prize."I think we had some good times. This was a happy place to work. Most of us enjoyed doing what we did," he said. "One of the most exciting things was a good story, having something in the paper that you're proud of."

Steve S. O'Neill, former managing editor of the Baltimore News American, died Tuesday of emphysema at Holy Spirit Hospital in Camp Hill, Pa. He was 70.Mr. O'Neill, who lived in Enola, Pa., retired in 1989 from the Patriot-News in Harrisburg where he was sports editor after leaving the News American in 1979. The newspaper closed in 1986.He began his career in Baltimore in 1958 as a sports reporter and was promoted to Sunday editor in the 1960s and managing editor in 1972.A large man with a gregarious personality, he directed his staff from the old newspaper's city room at Lombard and South streets.

Medical education company appoints managing editor Henry L. Mortimer Jr. has been appointed managing editor at Columbia-based Medicalliance Inc., a medical education company. He will be responsible for providing editorial direction and oversight for a variety of projects, including continuing medical education programs, product monographs and symposia. The Baltimore resident was editor in chief with Physicians Practice Inc., publisher of a bimonthly practice management magazine and a Web site.

Helen Hutchason, 81, worked at area mills Helen Hutchason, who worked in Baltimore area mills for nearly 30 years, died Saturday of pneumonia in Las Vegas, where she had lived at Henderson Convalescent Home for the past two years. She was 81 and lived nearly all her life in Hampden. Helen Arington attended Hampden Elementary and Robert Poole Junior High schools. She went to work after the ninth grade in area mills. In the 1940s, she met and married Mace Hutchason, a co-worker at Hooper Mills, which made canvas covers for tanks.