John F. Lawrence had been the Washington bureau chief for the L.A. Times in the early 1970s and editor of the Business section, then a columnist, before leaving in 1988 for a Columbia fellowship and Fortune magazine. At the Times, Lawrence hired Paul Steiger, now managing editor of the Wall Street Journal. Lawrence later worked at the New York Stock Exchange as vice president for communications. He died Monday in Manhattan. His wife, Kathleen Hale, is also a former LAT editor. Obituaries in Wednesday's New York Times and L.A. Times.