ROCKPORT – Charles Seib, a retired journalist who served as managing editor of The Evening Star in Washington and as ombudsman of The Washington Post, died Oct. 23 at Penobscot Bay Medical Center after a brief illness. He was 84.

As the Post’s ombudsman from 1974 to 1979, Seib wrote a weekly syndicated column of media criticism and monitored the newspaper for fairness, accuracy and balance. He was the fourth to hold the position, but the first to work with the independence of a long-term contract.

In 1991, Seib moved to Rackliff Island in Spruce Head, where he was active with the Georges River Land Trust.

A Kingston, N.Y., native and a graduate of Lehigh University, Seib worked for The Evening Chronicle in Allentown, Pa., The Associated Press, the Philadelphia Record, International News Service and Gannett News Service.

He joined the Star in 1954 and was named managing editor in 1968.

“He was always very calm but very demanding in his news judgment,” his son, Philip Seib, a journalism professor at Marquette University, told the Post. “He was from the old-school journalism where flash was not as important as comprehensive coverage and accuracy.”

After retiring from the Post, Seib taught at Harvard, Northwestern, Syracuse and the University of Maryland.

He was the author of “The Woods: One Man’s Escape to Nature.” Survivors include his wife, Shirley, son Philip, of Brookfield, Wis., and a daughter, Caroline Dawson of Northampton, Pa.