Commenting on an editorial about UC Merced founding chancellor Carol Tomlinson-Keasey, who died on Oct. 10, one reader noted with approval that the editorial writer called the late chancellor "Dr. Tomlinson-Keasey." as opposed to our obituary, which called her "Mrs. Tomlinson-Keasey."

I found it offensive that in the article in Monday's Bee about UC Merced's founding chancellor Dr. Tomlinson-Keasey's passing the writer refused to use her correct professional title. Only in the list of degrees was her Ph.D. mentioned. When was the last time the Bee referred to the President of Fresno State as "Mr." Welty? I can not remember a case of a male academic holding a doctorate being referred to as "Mr.", even in obituaries. I thought most people learned decades ago to credit women with their correct professional titles. In today's (Tuesday) editorial the writer got it right. Perhaps the reporter, editor, and proofreader involved in Monday's article should issue an apology to Dr. Tomlinson-Keasey's family. A clarification of the Bee's policy on this would be in order.

Here is the clarification and the apology. But first we need a surprisingly complicated explanation that delves into the intricacies of newspaper style.

First off, no disrespect was intended -- why would we write an obituary and go out of our way to diminish the subject of it? And certainly The Bee doesn't knowingly treat female university administrators differently from male university administrators.

All the same, the reader is right -- we should have used "Dr." in the obituary. And in a second error, we unintentionally applied a sexist double standard.

Some background is necessary to understand what went wrong:

1. The Bee's stylebook, like those of most newspapers, discourages the terms "Mr." and "Mrs." in most circumstances -- largely for the sake of brevity.


2. In the case of obituaries, however, the stylebook calls for use of such courtesy titles to avoid the appearance of insensitivity.


3. The stylebook also reserves the courtesy title "Dr." for holders of medical degrees. To avoid confusing readers, we generally omit it for those holding other kinds of doctorates, such as a a Ph.D. Even the president of Fresno State is just "President John Welty" or, on second reference, "Welty."

Acting on Rule No. 2 above, an editor added the term "Mrs." to the Tomlinson-Keasey obituary because she was married. Acting on Rule No. 3, the editor did not use "Dr." because Tomlinson-Keasey held a Ph.D.

The question is open to debate, but I think a better decision would have been to use "Dr." Since we were already making one style exception, we might as well have made two and showed maximum respect to the subject of the obituary.

While this point is debatable, a second error in the obit is not: We called her husband, who also holds a Ph.D., "Dr. Keasey." This is a clear style violation and, worse, evidence of sexist thinking.

The Bee apologizes to the family and to readers for these errors. We'll revise the stylebook to make sure "Mrs." doesn't trump "Dr." in similar circumstances henceforth. Thanks to the reader for drawing this to our attention.