MUMBAI: Gopalan Kasturi, former editor of family-owned English daily The Hindu, died of a heart failure at his Chennai residence early Friday. He was 87 years.

He was also a former Managing Director of Kasturi and Sons, the company that owns The Hindu.

He was the longest serving editor of the newspaper having worked at The Hindu from 1965 to 1991. He retired in 1991 and was succeeded by N Ravi.

Kasturi was a member of the board of directors of The Press Trust of India till 1991.

He is survived by his wife Kamala and sons K Balaji, K Venugopal and daughter Laxmi Srinath. They are all whole-time directors of Kasturi and Sons.

Kasturi?s elder brother, G Narasimhan, served as Managing Director of The Hindu from 1959 to 1977.

Born in Madras on 17 December 1924 to K Gopalan and Ranganayaki, Kasturi graduated from the Presidency College, Madras and joined The Hindu.