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Kompas Gramedia cofounder Swantoro dies at 87
Pollycarpus Swantoro, one of the cofounders of the Kompas Gramedia Group, died early this morning.
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Pollycarpus Swantoro speaks on Feb. 9 during a national seminar on "Looking Back on Javanese Studies" at Sanata Dharma University in Yogyakarta. The Kompas senior journalist and Kompas Gramedia cofounder died in the early morning of Aug. 11, 2019 at the age of 87. (Kompas/Wawan H. Prabowo)
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ollycarpus Swantoro, a senior journalist and a cofounder of the Kompas Gramedia Group, Indonesia’s largest media and publishing company, passed away in the early hours of Sunday at the age of 87.
Swantoro, who studied history, was a close friend of Kompas Gramedia cofounder Jakob Oetama and the first chief editor of Kompas daily newspaper.
Swantoro was once the Kompas deputy chief editor and the Kompas Gramedia deputy president director.
Jakob said that he and Swantoro had known each other even before the Kompas Gramedia Group was founded, with Swantoro replacing him at the helm of now-defunct Catholic magazine Penabur in the 1960s.
“So Pak Swantoro was involved from the beginning,” Jakob said as quoted by kompas.com.
According to kompas.com, Swantoro said during his 80th birthday party in 2012 – which the media group hosted – that he did not feel worthy of such a celebration.
“I just ask people to pray so that I can die well. What's the use of a long life if you do not die well,” he said at the time. (kmt)
