Orvil Dryfoos - Strike and Death

Strike and Death

In late 1962, a massive newspaper strike brought the publishing industry of New York to its knees. The staff of The Times dropped from 5,000 working personnel to only 900. The stress of negotiations and continuing to produce as much of a paper as possible adversely affected Dryfoos's health, as he worked to resolve the strike. The strike lasted for 114 days and at the time was identified as the costliest in Times history. On March 31, 1963 the strikers returned to work. Dryfoos maintained cordial relations with strikers throughout the stoppage and greeted the staff with a letter stating, "It's good to see you back at work!"

Dryfoos went to Puerto Rico to recover, but while there he checked into the hospital. He returned to New York and immediately went to Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. He died there on May 25, 1963 from heart failure at the age of 50.

Dryfoos's funeral at Congregation Emanu-El of New York was attended by many New York City luminaries, including New York City mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr., Columbia University president Grayson L. Kirk and long-time New York District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau.. Many members of the Rockefeller family were there, including New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, Lincoln Center chairman John D. Rockefeller III, and Chase Manhattan Bank president David Rockefeller. Many of his rival publishers attended: Hearst Newspapers editor in chief William Randolph Hearst, Jr., Newhouse publisher Samuel Irving Newhouse, Sr., New York Post publisher Dorothy Schiff, CBS president Frank Stanton, and Time Magazine chairman Andrew Heiskell (in 1965, Heiskell married Dryfoos's widow, Marian).

James Reston, the Washington correspondent and future executive editor of The New York Times who was also a close friend of Dryfoos, gave the eulogy. Reston said that Dryfoos "wore his life away" during the strike and "when the strike was over he finally slipped away to the hospital and never came back."

He was succeeded as publisher by Arthur Ochs "Punch" Sulzberger, the son of Arthur Hays Sulzberger, and younger brother of Marian Sulzberger Dryfoos.