Randy Wilson, the managing editor of the Arizona Daily Sun, died suddenly and unexpectedly on Saturday afternoon. He was 65.
Wilson had worked at the Daily Sunfor more than two decades, first as city editor then as managing editor overseeing everything from local news coverage to opinion content to the layout of the next day’s paper.
Both in the office and outside of it, Wilson was deeply engaged in the Flagstaff community. He spearheaded the annual New Year’s Day polar plunge and the Flagstaff Four on the Fourth race, held each Fourth of July. He moderated The Literacy Center’s adult spelling bee each year and played a major role in the newspaper’s citizen and organization of the year initiatives.
He was active in his church and spent much of his free time exploring the area on trails both well trodden and hardly traveled. Afterwards, tales of those cross-country skiing, biking and hiking trips often ended up in the pages of the Daily Sun.
Family members said Wilson spent some of his last moments doing what he loved, riding bikes with his wife as some of the summer’s first monsoon rain clouds rolled across the sky.
