Alden Joseph Blethen (December 27, 1845 – July 12, 1915) was a teacher and attorney who was editor-in-chief of the Seattle Daily Times from August 10, 1896 until his death.

[3] He attended the Maine Wesleyan Seminary and Female College (now Kents Hill School) beginning in 1864, graduating in 1868.

[4] He received a Master of Arts from Bowdoin College,[5] then became a schoolteacher, teaching at the Abbott School in Farmington from 1869 to 1874.

For the next 12 years, he operated the paper successfully and began to be called "Colonel" for his service on the staff of two Minnesota governors.

At the time of his death, Seattle magazine The Town Crier wrote that "he was an editor whose personality pervaded the medium which he controlled.