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WALNUT CREEK – William C. McDowell, a newspaper publisher who sold the family business when he joined the Navy and later became an executive at United Press International, has died. He was 97. 

He died last Thursday at John Muir Hospital, according to his daughter, Carol Leslie. The cause of death was not disclosed. 

McDowell was born into the newspaper business — his father founded the Alameda Times-Star, the Turlock Daily Journal and the Eugene Morning News in Oregon. 

He was publisher of all three papers, but as World War II unfolded, sold them and joined the Navy. 

McDowell helped the Navy in its early efforts to use radar to navigate planes. He also flew the first U.S. plane that landed in Japan after it surrendered in August 1945. 

Upon returning with medals including the Distinguished Flying Cross, McDowell went to work as an executive at UPI. 

After a stint as UPI’s bureau chief in San Francisco, McDowell moved to New York and was the general manager of the photo department — credited with developing that wire service’s first method for instantly transmitting color pictures. 

McDowell was born in Oakland in 1905 and attended Stanford University. He was a big booster of Stanford athletics, and only missed two Big Games against rival Cal between 1912 and 2001.