Early in the past century, Riverside, Washington, was a disreputable dockside community on a bluff above the Snohomish River. Max Carlton Miller, born in Traverse City, Michigan, spent his youth in Riverside, as some residents …
April 16, 2026
While attending the University of Wisconsin, Don Bauder held a number of posts at the campus newspaper, including editor in chief. He received a bachelor's degree in business (1959) and a master's in journalism (1961) and then spent four years in advertising and PR. In 1964, he joined the Chicago bureau of Business Week magazine as reporter/writer. In 1966, he got the job as bureau chief in Cleveland.
(a book about a local Ponzi scheme), which stayed on the L.A. Times best-seller list for more than two months. He's been married for 56 years and has two sons and two grandsons.
Don left Cleveland in 1973 to become financial editor and columnist for the San Diego Union. When the Union and Tribune merged in the early 1990s, he remained at that post; in '95, he was named senior columnist at the Union-Tribune.
He retired from the U-T in March of 2003 and began writing his weekly column for the Reader in April of 2003. Now he writes a column every two weeks, and contributes to News Ticker regularly.
In 1985-1986, Don wrote Captain Money and the Golden Girl (a book about a local Ponzi scheme), which stayed on the L.A. Times best-seller list for more than two months. He's been married for 56 years and has two sons and two grandsons.
Articles by Don Bauder (RIP)
Max Miller – San Diego's literary giant of the 1930s
The Nancy Hoover-Dominelli scam sucked most of San Diego in
He had a passion to do well. She had a passion to do good. Together, they touted his investment scheme, which bilked a thousand investors of $80 million. He has confessed to planning and running …
April 2, 2026
More good writers in San Diego than you thought
God’s Country RememberedMy wife and I are driving up El Cajon Boulevard. It hasn’t changed much, not really. Businesses come and go (there wasn’t anything remotely like the Hung Vuong Pho restaurant back then), but …
August 25, 2025
Peter Navarro's rise noted in the Reader
This week's Midweek Read and Weekend Read on Wednesday and Friday come from Peter Navarro, now trade advisor to Donald Trump; Navarro wrote four lengthy front-page stories for the <em>Reader</em> . The stories chronicle his …
May 12, 2025
San Diego Union and San Diego Reader writer Don Bauder passes away
In 1960, I entered the journalism profession with a Master’s degree and an addiction to work in a field I already knew that I loved: writing and reporting. I had worked 40 hours a week …
June 24, 2024
Alleys are San Diego's last frontier
A tour of San Diego alleysJack Whalen hands me a beer. “I’m king of this alley,” Whalen says, then points west. “Down there, the king of that next alley is Tom Sweet. He’s 97.” Whalen …
October 16, 2023
David Ross – knew San Diego homeless intimately
He loves the people no one wants"I'm used to voices downtown, of agony and pain and just dysfunction, and I had the window down a little so I could hear. I look and there's a …
October 2, 2023
Tom Deméré takes us to Mission Valley of 50 million years ago
More or less sudden mountainsThe rocks in and around San Diego have composed amazing, fiery stories for a very long time. An ancient ocean once covered this county; volcanoes used to spew here; and more …
October 1, 2023
Old Otay Mesa
Otay before 50,000 homes In 1954 I sat on the school bus every day next to my best friend, Mark Robson. The ride home from Montgomery Elementary School in Otay was a straight shot east …
July 30, 2023