Tyler Mathisen speaks during a memorial service for Marshall Loeb. Photo: Patrica Kranz
By Patricia Kranz
The wit, wisdom and extraordinary work ethic of past OPC President Marshall Loeb were remembered by his family and friends during a memorial service at Temple Emanu-El on Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan on Jan. 18.
His children, Michael and Margaret Loeb, described what it was like to live with a father who lived and breathed journalism. They called him Marshall, not father. Dinner time was devoted to discussions of news of the day, so much so that their friends declined invitations to the Loeb home to avoid “being interrogated.” No summer vacations at the beach for the Loebs: They went with their father on working trips to the Soviet Union or to Cuba on the eve of the revolution.
Marshall loved working for TIME, Fortune and Money magazine, retiring from Time Inc. only because the company had mandatory retirement at 65, said Michael. After that, Marshall edited The Columbia Journalism Review, aired financial advice on CBS Radio and served a short stint as host of the PBS television program “Wall Street Week.”
You can read remembrances from past OPC presidents and other members here >>
“He believed that at the highest levels, journalism is God’s work,” said Michael.
Tyler Mathisen, who was hired by Loeb at Money, said he never knew anyone who worked harder than Marshall. “He engaged. He was full of enterprise. He innovated. He had bandwidth before bandwidth was even a word. He was the first, and the ultimate, multi-platform journalist.”
Mathisen drew chuckles from the crowd when he said he was grateful he worked for Marshall before there were cellphones. “The idea of working for Marshall, weaponized, with a hand-held device that he could use to reach me, or text me, any time of the day or night, anywhere in the world he was or I was, sends shivers through my body.” (To read the full text of Mathisen’s remarks, click here.)
Marshall’s outlook never changed. “When asked at the end of his life what advice he would give an aspiring journalist,” his daughter Margaret said, “he said, ‘Never give up, never give up.’”
Representing the OPC at the service were Michael Serrill and Allan Dodds Frank, past OPC presidents; Patricia Kranz, OPC Executive Director; Sonya Fry, retired OPC Executive Director; and members David Fondiller and Jeremy Main.