Neil Morgan, noted journalist, author and civic force in San Diego for more than six decades, died Saturday at age 89.Morgan died at home in La Jolla after a long illness, according to his wife, writer Judith MorganMorgan was named editor of the Tribune in 1981 and remained in that position until the newspaper merged with the other Copley family-owned newspaper, the San Diego Union, in 1992.With Morgan at the helm, the Tribune was known as a “writer’s paper,” said longtime San Diego journalist and Morgan friend Bob Witty. He considered the mentoring of young reporters a primary duty of an editor; he loved both a news “scoop” and a well-written feature story.Morgan was co-author, along with Judith, of a well-received biography of La Jolla resident Ted Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. He also wrote books about San Diego and the Western U.S., among other topics.He was an unabashed San Diego chauvinist but not above pointing out the city’s occasional silliness and scandal. He poked and prodded the city to move beyond its historic provincialism.