Lester Bernstein was an American journalist, newspaper executive, and the former editor-in-chief of Newsweek from 1979 to 1982.
11 Facts About Lester Bernstein
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Lester Bernstein graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in 1936 and in 1940 from Columbia College, where he was The New York Times's campus correspondent and joined the staff after graduation, against his father's wishes.
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Lester Bernstein was drafted into the United States Army in December 1942, and served in the 102nd Infantry Division, 9th Army in Europe where he worked as a radioman.
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Lester Bernstein gained a reputation for covering Broadway during the 1940s and joined Time in 1948 as a film critic and was posted to Rome and interviewed celebrities such as Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, and Gina Lollobrigida.
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Lester Bernstein was named Time's European correspondent in 1955, where he interviewed Carl Jung and profiled Billy Graham.
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Lester Bernstein accompanied Senator Robert F Kennedy to Los Angeles when he won the California primary of the Democratic presidential nomination and stayed at the Ambassador Hotel on the night RFK was assassinated in 1968.
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Lester Bernstein rose to managing editor of Newsweek, but left in 1972 after he felt that he was passed over for the job of top editor by the paper's publisher Katharine Graham.
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Lester Bernstein continued to write book reviews and op-eds after retirement for The New York Times, including a 1989 cover story for The New York Times Magazine.
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In 1980, Lester Bernstein received the John Jay Award, given out by Columbia College's alumni association for distinguished professional achievement, along with the pianist Emanuel Ax and US Secretary of Defense Harold Brown.
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One of his daughters, Nina Lester Bernstein, is a journalist for The New York Times and is married to the Columbia University professor Andreas Huyssen.
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Lester Bernstein died on November 27,2014, at his home in Lido Beach, New York at 94 years old.