Louis Silverstein Dies At 92

Louis Silverstein

Louis Silverstein, the former New York Times art director who radically improved its design, died of cardiac arrest in a Brooklyn hospital on Thursday, December 1. He was 92.

Mr. Silverstein who made the daring decision to delete the period from The New York Times banner in 1967, led an avant-garde career in design. In 1976 he was part of a team that nearly reinvented the entire paper’s design, a “rethinking of the paper that was as important to its future then as the Internet is today, and one that influenced newspaper design nationwide,” according to The Times.

In 1984, Mr. Silverstein was inducted into the Art Directors Hall of Fame, further earning the distinction “the godfather” of modern newspaper design.

Born October 10, 1919, in Brooklyn, he graduated from Boys High School and earned a fine arts degree from Pratt Institute. He worked in advertising and graphic design while serving in the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II. After the war, he studied at the Institute of Design in Chicago. In 1952, he began his career with The Times in its production department and became its director the following year. After changing The Times’s typeface in 1967, he was named the art director for The New York Times Company in 1969.

According to his daughter, Anne, Mr. Silverstein’s relationship with the Town of Southampton was especially poignant. Mr. Silverstein and his wife, Helen, bought a house in Shinnecock Hills in 1958. In 1964, his then 8-year-old son, Jamie, was hit by a car in their Brooklyn neighborhood. In order to keep him on the road to recovery, the family opted for a treatment called patterning. Requiring five volunteers, four or five times a day to manipulate the child’s arms, legs and head in an effort to recreate brain patterns, the family needed help. In 1965 and 1966, the Southampton Presbyterian Church adopted the Silverstein family and arrived by the hundreds to help with Jamie’s treatment. In particular, Sonny Stratford of Stratford Plumbing coordinated the effort. “The Silverstein family has never forgotten the kindness and support shown by the town,” Ms. Silverstein said.

In addition to his daughter, Anne, Mr. Silverstein is survived by his wife of 60 years, Helen Silverstein (née Becker); and two grandsons. He was predeceased by his son, Jamie in 1972 at the age of 16.