Orvil Dryfoos

Orvil Eugene Dryfoos (born November 8, 1912 in New York City , † May 25, 1963 in ibid) was editor of the New York Times from 1961 until his death . He joined the family business through his marriage to Marian Sulzberger, the daughter of the then publisher Arthur Hays Sulzberger .

family

Dryfoos was born as the son of Florence Dryfoos (* July 20, 1891 as Florence Levi; † April 16, 1964 as Myron G. Lehman) and Jack Alphons Dryfoos (1884-1937). His father was a wealthy stocking manufacturer and an authorized signatory for the Paper Novelty Manufacturing Company of New York City and Stamford, Conn. , a manufacturer of Christmas decorations. Orvil Dryfoos' brothers were Donald Dryfos (1914-1992) and Hugh Dryfos (born March 12, 1919, † September 18, 1983). He was the grandson of Otto Eugene and Amelia (Samuels) Dryfoos. This grandfather had emigrated from Germany to New York City in 1895.

His wife was Marian Sulzberger Heiskell. Her three children are Jacqueline Hays Dryfoos Greenspon (born May 8, 1943), a psychotherapist divorced from Stuart Greenspon, Robert Ochs Dryfoos (born November 4, 1944), divorced from Katie Thomas, and Susan Warms Dryfoos Selznick (born November 5, 1946 ), married to Daniel Selznick, son of the film producer David O. Selznick and Irene Mayer Selznick. His brother-in-law was Arthur Ochs Sulzberger .

education

He attended the Horace Mann School in New York City and Dartmouth College . He graduated in 1934 with a bachelor's degree in sociology.

After graduating, he began working as a runner on Wall Street for Asiel & Co. In 1937 he moved to Sydney Lewinson & Co as a partner . and acquired a seat on the New York Stock Exchange . Dryfoos was a member of the Emanu-El Congregation in New York . Diagnosed with rheumatic heart disease, Dryfoos worked for the New York Red Cross blood donation committee during World War II .

The New York Times

On July 8, 1941, he married Marian Sulzberger, daughter of the publisher Arthur Hays Sulzberger . Sulzberger himself married into this family because he was the husband of Iphigene Bertha Ochs, Adolph Ochs' only child . “I was sensible enough to marry the boss's daughter,” Sulzberger told Dryfoos.

In 1942, Dryfoos left Wall Street to take up a leadership position at the New York Times and first became a local reporter. In 1943 he became the publisher's assistant.

Dryfoos was trustee of his alma mater Dartmouth College , lay trustee of Fordham University , trustees and board member of the Rockefeller Foundation , director of the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau , director of the Fifth Avenue Association , a director of the New York World's Fair of 1964 and president of the charity The New York Times Foundation . He was made an Honorary Doctor of Arts from Dartmouth in 1957 and an Honorary Doctor of Law from Oberlin College in 1962 .

In 1954 Dryfoos became vice president and director of The New York Times Company . In 1957 he became president of the company and after Sulzberger suffered a stroke in 1958, Dryfoos took over responsibility for most of the daily running of the newspaper. On April 25, 1961, when Sulzberger resigned, he officially became a publisher.

Dryfoos has appointed John Bertram Oakes as editor-in-chief of the opinion page . From October 31, 1961 to January 24, 1964, he had a Western Edition of The New York Times printed in Los Angeles in order to undermine the printer strike in New York City and sell advertisements.

The main challenge of Dryfoos' tenure at the Times was a protracted newspaper strike from December 8, 1962 to March 31, 1963. That strike was a tough labor dispute in New York City . The Times' workforce fell from 5,000 to 900. The stress of the negotiations and the effort to produce as many copies as possible despite the strike had a negative impact on Dryfoos' health. The strike lasted 114 days and was then identified as the most expensive in Times history . The strikers returned to work on March 31, 1963. Dryfoos maintained cordial relations with the strikers throughout the strike and greeted the staff with a letter in which he wrote: "It's good to see you back at work!"

death

After the strike, Dryfoos traveled to Puerto Rico to recover, but had to go to hospital for inpatient treatment. He returned to New York and was admitted to the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center . There he died of heart failure on May 25, 1963 at the age of 50. The funeral of Dryfoos in the Emanu-El Congregation in New York was attended by many New York personalities, including New York Mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr. , Columbia University President Grayson L. Kirk , and later long-time New York District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau . Many members of the Rockefeller family were present, including the governor of New York, Nelson Rockefeller , chairman of Lincoln Center , John D. Rockefeller III , and the president of the Chase Manhattan Bank , David Rockefeller . Many representatives from other publishers gave him final conduct: Hearst Newspapers editor-in-chief William Randolph Hearst Jr. , Advance Publications publisher Samuel Irving Newhouse Sr. , Dorothy Schiff , CBS president Frank Stanton, and Andrew Heiskell , chairman of Time Inc. (married in 1965 Heiskell Dryfoos' widow Marian).

James Reston, Washington correspondent and later editor-in-chief of the New York Times, who was a close friend of Dryfoos, delivered the funeral speech. Reston said Dryfoos "lost his life" during the strike and when the strike was over, "eventually fled to the hospital and never came back."

He was followed as editor of The New York Times by Arthur Ochs "Punch" Sulzberger, the son of Arthur Hays Sulzberger and younger brother of Marian Sulzberger Dryfoos.

predecessor	Office	successor
Arthur Hays Sulzberger	Editor of The New York Times 1962–1963	Arthur Ochs Sulzberger

Individual evidence

↑ Mrs. Myron Lehman Dies at 72; Mother of Times' Late Publisher . In: The New York Times . April 17, 1964, p. 35 (English, full text ).
^ Children of the Times - Who's who in the Ochs-Sulzberger clan. (PDF) New York Magazine , accessed January 18, 2020 .
↑ Susan Warms Dryfoos, author, Wed To Daniel Mayer Selznick, a producer . In: The New York Times . October 9, 1989, p. 4 (Section B) (English, full text ).
↑ "Orvil Dryfoos, publisher of The New York Times". The Washington Post . (May 26, 1963): B9.
^ ^A ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "Orvil E. Dryfoos Dies at 50; New York Times Publisher". The New York Times . (May 26, 1963): 1.
^ Time , April 28, 1961, Family Fief, [1]
↑ ^a ^b "Dryfoos Funeral Attended by 2.000" The New York Times . (May 28, 1963): 28.

Remarks

↑ Runner , (literally runner) is the name of a function in floor trading : the phone clerk, the person who takes the order over the phone, gives it to the runner, who then passes it to the floor broker of the brokerage house. A runner is an abbreviation for a junior broker-dealer employee who brings a trade order to the broker's floor trader for execution. Runners are often entry-level positions that lead to employees and to dealers or brokers.

personal data
SURNAME	Dryfoos, Orvil
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Dryfoos, Orvil Eugene
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American editor of the New York Times (1962–1963)
DATE OF BIRTH	November 8, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH	New York City
DATE OF DEATH	May 25, 1963
Place of death	New York City

[1] Mrs. Myron Lehman Dies at 72; Mother of Times' Late Publisher . In: The New York Times . April 17, 1964, p. 35 (English, full text ).

[NYMAGClan-2] Children of the Times - Who's who in the Ochs-Sulzberger clan. (PDF) New York Magazine , accessed January 18, 2020 .

[3] Susan Warms Dryfoos, author, Wed To Daniel Mayer Selznick, a producer . In: The New York Times . October 9, 1989, p. 4 (Section B) (English, full text ).

[4] "Orvil Dryfoos, publisher of The New York Times". The Washington Post . (May 26, 1963): B9.

[NYTobit-6] A ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "Orvil E. Dryfoos Dies at 50; New York Times Publisher". The New York Times . (May 26, 1963): 1.

[Fief-7] Time , April 28, 1961, Family Fief, [1]

[Funeral-8] "Dryfoos Funeral Attended by 2.000" The New York Times . (May 28, 1963): 28.

[5] Runner , (literally runner) is the name of a function in floor trading : the phone clerk, the person who takes the order over the phone, gives it to the runner, who then passes it to the floor broker of the brokerage house. A runner is an abbreviation for a junior broker-dealer employee who brings a trade order to the broker's floor trader for execution. Runners are often entry-level positions that lead to employees and to dealers or brokers.