Andrew Heiskell, a former chairman of Time Inc. and a philanthropist whose efforts at civic improvement helped rescue the New York Public Library and Bryant Park in New York, has died at 87.
Mr. Heiskell, who died Sunday at his home in Darien, Conn., retired from Time Inc. in 1980 after a 43-year career during which he rose to chairman and chief executive of the media empire started by Henry Luce.
He became chairman of the city’s library in 1981 and raised hundreds of millions of dollars to improve the citywide system and restore its landmark Fifth Avenue headquarters, enlisting the help of Brooke Astor, the library’s patron-in-chief, and bringing in a new director, Vartan Gregorian.
Mr. Heiskell’s publishing career began when he was hired in 1937 as a 22-year-old to produce and edit pictorial articles about science and medicine for Life magazine, then in its early stages. Two years later he moved from editorial duties to concentrate on business, and at the age of 30 he was named publisher of Life, the photojournalism weekly that provided images of the war years to millions.
From 1960, when he became chairman of the entire Time Inc. operation, until his retirement, Mr. Heiskell presided over a conglomerate that, in addition to magazines, was involved in book and newspaper publishing, pulp and paper production, movies, cable television and data marketing.
In the 1960s he became increasingly involved in urban affairs and philanthropic causes. With his wife, the former Marian Sulzberger Dryfoos–a member of the family that controls The New York Times Co.–Mr. Heiskell often lent his name and his presence to fundraising events for cultural institutions.
During his years at the helm of Time Inc., he reluctantly closed down Life, which had steadily lost readers and advertisers to television. In 1974 he started People magazine, which quickly grew into a prized asset yielding enormous profits.
Andrew Heiskell was born in Naples, Italy. His parents had left Wheeling, W.Va., to live as expatriates on the Isle of Capri.
In 1936, after attending Harvard University, he got a job interview at The New York Herald Tribune, where he was hired to cover “the most trivial stories” at $25 a week.
He stayed less than a year before getting the science job at Life at $40 a week. That lasted two years until Mr. Heiskell, then 24, switched from the editorial department to publishing. Six years later, in 1946, he was named Life magazine’s publisher.
In 1960 he was promoted to chairman and put in charge of long-range planning and strategy. Some of his projects, such as Money magazine and the expansion of Sports Illustrated, proved profitable, as did Time-Life Books, newly acquired television stations and the expanded pulp and paper mills. Later came People.
Other ventures, such as starting TV Cable Week magazine and publishing foreign magazines, failed, but the winners outnumbered the losers.
Mr. Heiskell devoted himself energetically to many civic and charitable causes. He was associated as a trustee or board member with Harvard, People for the American Way, Common Cause, the Lincoln Center Theater, the Institute of International Education, the Brookings Institution and the American Academy in Rome.
