Orvil Eugene Dryfoos was the publisher of The New York Times from 1961 to his death.
22 Facts About Orvil Dryfoos
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Orvil Dryfoos entered the Times family via his marriage to Marian Sulzberger, daughter of then-publisher Arthur Hays Sulzberger.
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The elder Dryfoos was a wealthy hosiery manufacturer who was the treasurer of a paper novelty manufacturing company.
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Orvil Dryfoos attended the Horace Mann School in New York City and Dartmouth College.
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Orvil Dryfoos majored in sociology and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1934.
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Orvil Dryfoos was prevented from serving in World War II due to a diagnosis of rheumatic heart disease.
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Orvil Dryfoos worked instead for the New York Red Cross Chapter's blood donor committee through the war.
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Orvil Dryfoos's father-in-law had married into the Ochs family who owned the paper.
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Orvil Dryfoos was the husband of Adolph Ochs's only child, Iphigene Ochs.
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In 1942, Orvil Dryfoos left Wall Street to be groomed to lead The New York Times and he became a reporter on the local staff.
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Orvil Dryfoos had three children: Jacqueline Hays, was born on May 8,1943), Robert Ochs (November 4,1944 and and Susan Warms.
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Orvil Dryfoos became a trustee of his alma mater Dartmouth, a lay trustee of Fordham University, and trustee and executive committee member of the Rockefeller Foundation, a director of the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau, a director of the Fifth Avenue Association, a director of the 1964 New York World's Fair, and president of the company charity, The New York Times Foundation.
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Orvil Dryfoos was awarded an honorary Master of Arts in 1957 from Dartmouth and an honorary Doctor of Laws in 1962 from Oberlin College.
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In 1954 Orvil Dryfoos became a vice-president and director of the company.
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In 1957 he became Times president and after Sulzberger suffered a stroke in 1958, Orvil Dryfoos became responsible for most of the paper's day-to-day operations.
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Orvil Dryfoos officially became publisher on April 25,1961, when Sulzberger stepped down.
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Orvil Dryfoos immediately appointed John Bertram Oakes to the post of editorial page editor.
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The defining struggle of Orvil Dryfoos' tenure at The Times was a lengthy newspaper strike.
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Orvil Dryfoos returned to New York and immediately went to Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center.
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Orvil Dryfoos died there on May 25,1963, from heart failure at the age of 50.
21.
James Reston, the Washington correspondent and future executive editor of The New York Times who was a close friend of Orvil Dryfoos, gave the eulogy.
22.
Orvil Dryfoos was succeeded as publisher by Arthur Ochs "Punch" Sulzberger, the son of Arthur Hays Sulzberger, and younger brother of Marian Sulzberger Dryfoos.