Orvil E. Dryfoos '34
ORVIL EUGENE DRYFOOS '34, president and publisher of The New York Times and a Trustee of Dartmouth College, died May 25 in the Harkness Pavilion of Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City. He had entered the hospital on April 15, immediately upon his return from Puerto Rico, where he had gone for a rest following the 114-day New York newspaper strike and where he was first hospitalized with a heart ailment.
The death of Orvil Dryfoos, a widely respected figure in American journalism, brought tributes from President Kennedy and leaders in all walks of national life. No tributes were more heartfelt than those made by the Dartmouth Board of Trustees and by President Dickey personally. The statement by the Board said: "The Trustees of Dartmouth College have lost in Orvil E. Dryfoos a beloved colleague. The warmth of his heart and the range of his knowledge were remarkable. In academic life, he remained in touch with the world that gives substance to the mind, but he never lost sight of the spiritual aspirations that give meaning to practical affairs. Dartmouth College will be ever in his debt, not merely for what he did but also for what he was. His life was a noble example of what it means to be a liberally educated man."
President Dickey said, "I have never known private responsibility to be borne as a public trust with more grace and greater fidelity than he brought to the leadership of TheTimes. Dartmouth College was the beneficiary of his devoted trusteeship. All who knew him were enriched by the generosity of his spirit."
At the funeral service, held May 27 at Temple Emanu-El in New York and attended by some 2,000 persons, the College was officially represented by President Dickey and two other members of the Board of Trustees, John D. Dodd '22 of Montclair, N. J., and Charles J. Zimmerman '23 of Hartford, Conn. The campus flag was flown at half-mast and at the time of the New York service a brief memorial service took place in Hanover in Rollins Chapel.
Mr. Dryfoos was first elected to the Dartmouth Board of Trustees in January 1957 to fill an unexpired term, and in June 1960 he was elected to a first full term of five years. As a member of the Board he served as chairman of the Trustees Committee on Educational Affairs and was a member of the Committee on Public and Alumni Affairs. Prior to becoming a Trustee he was a member of the Dartmouth Alumni Council from 1955 to 1957 and was active on the Council's Committee on Public Relations. His devotion to the College was deep and constant, and in the eulogy delivered by James Reston at the May 27 service Dartmouth was referred to as "his other home."
Orvil Dryfoos was born in New York City on November 8, 1912, the eldest of three sons of the late Jack A. Dryfoos and Florence Dryfoos, now Mrs. Myron Lehman of New York. He attended Horace Mann School and then entered Dartmouth, where he played freshman soccer, was on the Aegis staff, and majored in sociology. After graduation he was with Asiel and Company, New York stockbrokers, for three years, leaving in 1937 to purchase his own seat on the New York Stock Exchange. He was an active floor trader in securities for several years thereafter.
On July 8, 1941, Mr. Dryfoos was married to Marian Sulzberger, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Hays Sulzberger of New York. Mr. Sulzberger, publisher of The NewYork Times, persuaded his son-in-law to leave stocks for newspaper work in 1942, although Mr. Dryfoos retained his Stock Exchange membership until 1949. A year in the city room as reporter was Mr. Dryfoos' introduction to newspaper life. He then became assistant to Mr. Sulzberger and began a long and comprehensive training in the business and technical responsibilities of publishing. Eleven years later, in 1954, he was elected vice president and a director of The New York Times Company, becoming at the same time an officer in several subsidiary operations of the company. In 1957 he assumed the office of president and Mr. Sulzberger took the titles of chairman of the board and publisher. In 1961, upon the retirement of Mr. Sulzberger as publisher, Mr. Dryfoos became both president and publisher of America's leading newspaper. On his first day as publisher he wrote: "I pledge that my associates and I will maintain vigilantly the high standards set by our predecessors." The tributes at the time of his death were impressive evidence that he had kept that pledge.
Mr. Dryfoos was president and director of the Interstate Broadcasting Company, Inc. (WQXR) and The New York Times of Canada, Ltd., and was a director of the Spruce Falls Power and Paper Co., Ltd., of Toronto, a Times subsidiary. He headed The New York Times Foundation, a corporation arranged for charitable purposes, and The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund.
Mr. Dryfoos held honorary degrees from Dartmouth and Oberlin, and was prominent in many educational, civic, philanthropic, and publishing organizations. He was a trus- tee of Fordham University as well as of Dartmouth, and was a trustee and member of the executive committee of the Rockefeller Foundation. He served as a director of the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Hundred Year Association of New York, the Fifth Avenue Association, and the New York World's Fair 1964.
In 1963, when he retired as a director of the Bureau of Advertising of the Newspaper publishers Association, he was awarded a bronze plaque for distinguished service to the newspaper business.
Mr. Dryfoos was a trustee of the Baron de Hirsch Fund. He belonged to Council on Foreign Relations, the Japan Society, the France-America Society, the American Australian Association, the Pan-American Society of the United States, the Pilgrims, and Sigma Delta Chi. He was a member of Congregation Emanu-El.
His clubs included the Century Country Club of White Plains, the Dutch Treat, and the Century Association of 7 West 43 rd Street. His suburban address was 1219 Rock-rimmon Road, Stamford, Conn.
In addition to his wife and mother, Mr. Dryfoos leaves a son, Robert Ochs Dryfoos, who will be a Dartmouth freshman next fall; two daughters, Jacqueline Hays and Susan Warms Dryfoos; and two brothers, Hugh Dryfoos '40 and Donald Dryfoos, all of New York.
After the funeral service in New York City on May 27, a commitment service attended by the family and a few close friends took place at the Temple Israel Cemetery, Mount Hope, Hastings-on-Hudson, N. Y.
Trustee Orvil E. Dryfoos '34
