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OBITUARIES

Ivan B. Veit ’28: New York Times Executive;
Former Board of Visitors Chair

Ivan B. Veit ‘28 in 1999.

Ivan B. Veit ’28, a former executive v.p. of The New York Times Co. who helped usher the newspaper’s circulation and promotion departments into the modern era, and co-founder and former chair of the College’s Board of Visitors, died on November 27, 2004, in Beacon, N.Y. He was 96 and lived in nearby Millbrook, N.Y.

Veit was an active alumnus who devoted many hours to the College. His daughter, Lenore Gale, said in a note to CCT: “Aside from his family, one of the three anchors of [my father’s] life — the other two being the U.S. Navy, with which he served in the South Pacific in WWII, and The New York Times, for which he worked for 50 years — was Columbia College. He never wavered in his passionate devotion to his alma mater.” The College honored Veit with a John Jay Award for distinguished professional achievement in 1982. He was awarded the University Alumni Medal in 1978 for outstanding service, served as special adviser to the dean and was a longtime member of the CCT advisory board. He was given the Gold Key Award, presented by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, in 1974.

Ivan Bertram Veit was born in New York City on May 31, 1908. He and his family moved to Bath, N.Y., in 1909, then to Hornell, N.Y., where he lived until entering Columbia in 1924. In 1928, on his 20th birthday, Veit joined the Times as a telephone solicitor in the classified advertising department, earning $18 a week, and stayed with the company for 46 years in various business and administrative positions; Veit, who graduated from the College a month after starting at the paper, had already spent five summers at The Hornell Tribune-Times as a reporter, sports editor and city editor.

In 1935, Veit became the Times’ promotion manager and, after naval service — Veit served from 1943–45 as a lieutenant and communications officer on the U.S.S. Vincennes in the South Pacific — returned as director of promotion and research. Veit eventually was business manager, became v.p. in 1963 and executive v.p. in charge of development and planning in 1970. From then until his retirement in 1974, Veit was special assistant to the president and publisher, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger. Upon his retirement in 1974, Veit was appointed to the Board of Directors of The New York Times Company for five additional years. He also was president of WQXR for a number of years in the 1960s.

Veit had two Columbia wives. In 1930, he married Sylvia Lippmann, whom he met on a blind date while both were undergraduates. Lippmann, a Barnard graduate, died in 1972. In 1983, Veit married Rose Brooks, whom he met through Columbia alumni activities while she was director of the Columbia College Alumni Office. Brooks died in 1999. Veit’s last time on campus was 1998, when he and Brooks attended his 70th class reunion.

“Ivan was a lion for Columbia College,” said Eric Witkin ’69, past president of the College Alumni Association. “He was active in so many ways. He was one of the pioneering advocates for the concept of endowing financial aid for the College, and he was a vigorous advocate for coeducation long before it came about. There was no more devoted alumnus than Ivan Veit. He loved Columbia College.”

Witkin noted that Veit was the first person to be named an honorary permanent member of the Alumni Association board.

According to an obituary that was published in the Times, Veit helped professionalize the field of newspaper circulation, which, through the early decades of the 20th century, had consisted largely of managing warring packs of newsboys. By the time he joined the Times, daily papers had begun to explore more gentlemanly ways of attracting and keeping readers. Acting as a link between the business and news departments, Veit helped shepherd the Times from the paper-and-ink enterprise it had been since 1851 to the diversified multimedia concern it is today. During his tenure, the company inaugurated its Large Type Weekly; expanded its magazine, book-publishing and educational programs; and made exploratory forays into cable television.

Veit lived in Manhattan from graduation until 1984; he lived in Florida for 15 years and then lived in Millbrook, N.Y. Aside from his daughter, Veit is survived by a stepson, Larry Brooks; six grandchildren; four step-grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by a son, Hubert, and a stepdaughter, Barbara Brooks.

Memorial contributions may be made to The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund, 4 Chase Metrotech Center, 7th Fl. East, Lockbox 5193, Brooklyn, NY 11245. Donations also are accepted online: www.nycharities.org, or by phone: 212-556-5851, ext. 7.

Lisa Palladino

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