Newspaper Circulation Director Tony Mineart

Tony Mineart, 47, a former circulation director at The Washington Post and a mentor to many in the profession, died Dec. 25 of pancreatic cancer at his home in Bradenton, Fla. He was a former resident of Mason Neck.

Anthony Maurice Mineart was born in Santa Monica, Calif., and grew up in Annandale. He began his career in newspaper circulation as a 10-year-old sweeping the floor of a newspaper distributor's office. Later, he became a Post newspaper carrier; when he got his driver's license, he became a route driver for several independent Post distributors. He graduated from Annandale High School in 1977.

He took time out from his fledgling career to get a bachelor's degree in political science from Central College in Pella, Iowa, in 1981, returning to The Post that year as an independent home delivery distributor. He joined The Post's management team 11 months later.

During his 21 years with The Post, he served as a zone manager, assistant to the vice president for circulation, customer service manager, metro single-copy manager, circulation director for single-copy and retail sales, and circulation director for corporate and national sales.

Recognizing his talent and enthusiasm for increasing newspaper circulation, the Newspaper Association of America renamed its Merchandiser of the Year Award in his honor a week before his death. He was a member of the American Press Institute board of advisers and an API seminar instructor in newspaper marketing.

David Dadisman, vice president for circulation at The Post, recalled that on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Mr. Mineart was teaching a class at API in Reston. When the two men got in touch, Mr. Mineart told Dadisman that he had assigned his class to make recommendations for distribution and marketing in the event of such a crisis and that he already had The Post's plan ready, including the number of papers to print, closing time for news to get into an Extra edition and production times that would be required.

"He was the kind of manager who had a contingency plan for everything, and he knew the details so well that he could customize everything on a moment's notice," Dadisman said.

Dadisman also described Mr. Mineart as "a great father, a coach, a teacher, a mentor," noting that his eagerness to bring young people into the industry resembled his enthusiasm for mentoring young people on the baseball field. A high school baseball player, he coached Little League teams in Lorton, American Legion teams in Alexandria and the fall baseball team for Hayfield High School in Alexandria.

"He really just had a gift for it," his wife recalled, "both for working with the kids' lives and teaching them the fundamentals of baseball. For example, on his teams you'd always see the catcher running down to back up first base."

Mr. Mineart was at The Post until 2003, when he became president of the newspaper division of Current News Co., an East Coast distributor of newspapers, magazines and books. He also did independent newspaper consulting before becoming circulation director for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group.

In 2000, he received a Robert R. McCormick fellowship and attended the Maynard Institute's Management Training Center at Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management. In 2005, he became senior vice president of circulation for the Los Angeles Newspaper Group.

Survivors include his wife of 26 years, Lori Mineart of Bradenton; four children, Eric Mineart of Bradenton, Scott Mineart of Orange City, Iowa, Kelly Mineart of Tampa and Jamie Mineart of Bradenton; a brother; and two sisters.