The New York Times - USA (2020-11-09)

A20 N THE NEW YORK TIMES OBITUARIESMONDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2020

Seymour Topping, who chroni-
cled the rise of China and the Cold
War in Europe and Asia as a corre-
spondent, shaped the crowning
years of print journalism as an ed-
itor of The New York Times, and
led the charge into the internet
age in the classrooms of Columbia
University, died on Sunday in
White Plains, N.Y. He was 98.
His death, at White Plains Hos-
pital, followed a stroke he suffered
late last month, his daughter Rob-
in Topping said.
In a peasant hut in Central
China, where he was being held
prisoner, Mr. Topping, as a young
correspondent, listened all night
to the thundering artillery. It
ended at dawn on Jan. 7, 1949. As
he looked up into the rifle muzzle
of a People’s Liberation Army sol-
dier, he wondered what the silence
portended. As he would soon
write, it was the end of China’s civ-
il war, the triumph of Mao Zedong
over the Nationalist forces of Chi-
ang Kai-shek.
Sixty years later — after a ca-
reer as a correspondent for wire
services and The Times; as for-
eign news editor and managing
editor of the newspaper, subordi-
nate only to the powerful execu-
tive editor A.M. Rosenthal; as a
teacher and author of four books;
and as one of America’s most re-
spected journalists — Mr. Topping
recalled that artillery silence as a
defining moment in history.
“Mao’s victory in the Battle of
the Huai-Hai marked the onset of
an era in which East Asia would be
engulfed in war, revolution, and
genocide,” he wrote in a memoir,
“On the Front Lines of the Cold
War” (2010). “Tens of millions
would die in China, Korea, Indo-
china and Indonesia in wars, polit-
ical purges and sectarian vio-
lence.”
For Mr. Topping, known univer-
sally to colleagues as Top, the
story was always about more than
the day’s news developments, in-
triguing as they might be. It was
about their historical significance,
too.
Thoughtful and precise and a
cool evaluator of events and peo-
ple, he was equally at home in a
war zone or an interview with a
world leader in Moscow or Bei-
jing, at the helm of a newsroom
tempest of breaking news, or at a
university lectern delivering an
analysis of global events for a new
generation of journalists who
might see war but would never
pound it out on a typewriter.
He learned the fast, often dan-
gerous game of deadline journal-
ism the hard way, as a globe-trot-
ting, no-nonsense wire service re-
porter for 14 years, from 1946 to
1959, first with the International
News Service covering China’s
civil war, then with The Associ-
ated Press in Nanking, Saigon,
London and Berlin, covering Cold
War tensions and fighting.
In 1950, besides reporting
events leading to the Korean War,
he became America’s first corre-
spondent in Vietnam since World
War II, covering the French co-
lonial war against Ho Chi Minh’s
Communist forces in years when
American interests in the region
were strategically hidden. In Eu-
rope, he covered diplomatic con-
ferences, the tug-of-war over
Berlin and the nuanced threats of
the East-West belligerents.
His scoops and perceptive writ-
ing caught the eye of Times edi-
tors, who hired him in 1959. Over
the next 34 years, he became piv-
otal to the paper’s coverage of
world events. As Moscow bureau
chief, he broke the news of the U-
spy plane incident in 1960 and the
Sino-Soviet rift in 1963, and cov-
ered Soviet space shots and Nikita
Khrushchev’s aggressive moves
in the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
As Southeast Asia bureau chief
from 1963 to 1966, he covered the
early American military involve-
ment in Vietnam and wars in Laos
and Cambodia.
He became foreign news editor
in 1966 (the title is now interna-
tional news editor), and for three
years directed the work of 40 cor-
respondents, including coverage
of the Vietnam War and Mao’s Cul-
tural Revolution. He de-empha-
sized official reports from abroad
and focused on how people lived

and their social, cultural and intel-

lectual pursuits. He promoted the

“takeout,” a longer-form article

written to add perspective, depth

and understanding to the news.

As an editor he continued to

write for The Times and its Sun-

day magazine, traveling widely to

interview President Nicolae

Ceausescu of Romania, Prime

Minister John Vorster of South Af-

rica, the shah of Iran, the Cuban

leader Fidel Castro, Premier Zhou

Enlai of China, Prime Minister

Golda Meir of Israel and King

Hussein of Jordan.

He was usually accompanied by

Audrey Ronning, a writer and

photojournalist he met in Nanking

(known today as Nanjing) and

married in 1949. Their five daugh-

ters were born at his postings —

Susan in Saigon, Karen and Les-

ley in London, Robin in Berlin and

Joanna in Bronxville, N.Y.

Mr. Topping’s years on The

Times masthead, as assistant

managing editor, deputy manag-

ing editor and managing editor co-

incided with Mr. Rosenthal’s 17-

year tenure in charge of news op-

erations, from 1969 to 1986. That

was no accident.

While the two were as unalike

as night and day, Mr. Topping was

Mr. Rosenthal’s handpicked alter-

ego, as tough as the boss, but with

none of his rough edges. Mr. Top-

ping’s quietly diplomatic, good-

natured calm had a temporizing

influence on Mr. Rosenthal, a ta-

ble-pounding former correspon-

dent whose brilliance as an editor

did nothing to mask an abrasive,

mercurial temperament that

sometimes eroded staff morale.

Mr. Rosenthal acknowledged as

much years later, explaining why

he had chosen Mr. Topping over

another deputy. “I passed over Ar-

thur Gelb, a very close friend, be-

cause we were both emotional and

excitable,” he told John Stacks, a

biographer of the Times editor

James Reston. “I chose Topping.

There were things I was very good

at, and things I wasn’t good at.

Topping was very good.”

It was an excellent fit in other

respects, too. Mr. Topping’s news

and personnel judgments were

solid, and he and Mr. Rosenthal,

above all, prized high standards of

reporting and editing, which de-

manded fairness, objectivity and

good taste in news columns free of

editorial comment, political agen-

das, innuendo and unattributed

pejorative quotations.

Together, the two men shaped

The Times’s news coverage of a

tumultuous era — the war in Viet-

nam, the Pentagon Papers case,

the Watergate scandals that drove

Richard M. Nixon from the presi-

dency, the vicissitudes of the Cold

War and successive crises in the

Middle East.

Throughout their tandem ten-

ure, Mr. Topping took the lead in

staff meetings, even with Mr. Ro-

senthal present, as editors de-

cided which articles would appear

on Page 1, and with what empha-

sis — decisions that influenced the

judgments of news editors across

America. And Mr. Topping basi-

cally ran the newsroom for weeks

or months at a time when Mr. Ro-

senthal was away visiting corre-

spondents, off on occasional re-

porting trips or absented by long-

running problems in his personal

life.

“We had an extremely close re-

lationship,” Mr. Topping recalled

in a phone interview for this obitu-

ary from his home in Scarsdale,

N.Y., in 2012. “He never took a ma-

jor decision without consulting

me. When he got into trouble, I

would pick up the pieces. I was to-

tally loyal to him.”

The Rosenthal-Topping era was

also one of innovation for The

Times. A national edition was be-

gun. The weekday paper grew

from two to four parts, with sepa-

rate metropolitan and business

news sections. New feature sec-

tions were inaugurated: sports on

Monday, science on Tuesday, and

living, home and weekend activi-

ties on other days. Sunday sec-

tions for New York suburbs were

added, as were magazine supple-

ments on travel, education, fash-

ion, health and other subjects. The

innovations were widely copied.

While other newspapers strug-

gled financially, The Times under

Mr. Rosenthal and Mr. Topping

prospered, with remarkable ad-

vertising and circulation gains.

Company revenues soared sev-

enfold to $1.6 billion in 1986 ($3.

billion in today’s money) from

$238 million in 1969, while net in-

come in the same period rose to

$132 million from $14 million.

In 1987, after Mr. Rosenthal

stepped down to become a col-

umnist as he neared his job’s man-

datory retirement age of 65, Mr.

Topping also left the masthead

and became director of editorial

development for the company’s 32

regional newspapers, a post he

held until retiring in 1993. In his

last year at the paper, he was pres-

ident of the American Society of

Newspaper Editors.

In 1993, he became a professor

at the Graduate School of Journal-

ism at Columbia University and

the administrator of the Pulitzer

Prizes, awarded by Columbia. He

held both posts until 2002. The au-

thor of “Journey Between Two

Chinas” (1972) and two novels set

in China and Vietnam, he contin-

ued to write for the Times Op-Ed

page and to lecture at Columbia

and other universities on world af-

fairs, and especially on the transi-

tion of news from print to elec-

tronic media, about which he was

optimistic.

“I believe that newspapers will

adjust to their digital-era chal-

lenges if they retain the courage

and quality of journalism that

made such news organizations as

The New York Times, The Wash-

ington Post and The Associated

Press worldwide the most re-

spected and quoted of news out-

lets,” he wrote in his 2010 memoir.

“The rising generations must be

persuaded that the integrity and

viability of their society, particu-

larly as they relate to national se-

curity and the safeguarding of

constitutional democracy, require

a Fourth Estate.”

In addition to his daughter Rob-

in, Mr. Topping is survived by his

wife of more than 70 years; three

other daughters, Karen Topping

Cone and Lesley and Joanna Top-

ping; seven grandchildren; and

four great-grandchildren. His

daughter Susan Topping died in

2015.

He was born Seymour Topolsky

in Manhattan on Dec. 11, 1921, to

Joseph and Anna Seidman Topol-

sky, Jewish immigrants from Rus-

sia. His mother had seen her

mother slain in a Cossack pogrom

in a Jewish village in Ukraine. His

father, who had left behind rela-

tives who were later killed in the

Holocaust, Anglicized the sur-

name.

As a teenager, Seymour read

Edgar Snow’s epic “Red Star Over

China” and dreamed of being a

foreign correspondent. After

graduating from Evander Childs

High School in the Bronx in 1939,

he attended the University of Mis-

souri, whose journalism school

was the nation’s oldest and had

good contacts in China.

He earned a degree in 1943, and

as a member of the Reserve Offi-

cers Training Corps was called

into the wartime Army, becoming

an infantry officer in the Phil-

ippines. He was discharged in

1946. He was hired by the Interna-
      tional News Service through con-
      tacts in Manila and, while lacking
      experience, eagerly accepted an
      assignment to northern China to
      cover a decades-old civil war that
      had resumed with full fury after
      World War II.
      By 1949, after covering Chiang’s
      defeat in Manchuria and joining
      The A.P., Mr. Topping was in Nan-
      king, the Nationalist capital, as
      Communist forces advanced on it.
      He went to the front, crossed a no
      man’s land and was taken pris-
      oner by Communist guerrillas. He
      thus became the only Western re-
      porter with Mao’s forces as the de-
      cisive battle loomed.
      As a captive he was marched for
      miles to a field headquarters on a
      battleground cratered by shell fire
      and strewn with bodies and the
      wreckage of American-made Na-
      tionalist vehicles. At gunpoint, he
      was put into a hut, where he lay all
      night listening to the artillery.
      In the morning, after the guns
      fell silent, a “deputy commissar”
      calling himself Wu came to the hut
      and returned Mr. Topping’s confis-
      cated typewriter and camera. A
      military escort and horses were
      waiting to take him back, Wu told
      him.
      “You know, I came here to tell
      your side of the story,” Mr. Top-
      ping said.
      “You cannot help us,” Wu said
      softly.
      Nationalist forces in the field
      had surrendered. Nanking would
      soon be taken. The war was over.
      Mr. Topping, in his memoir, re-
      called the parting: “As I mounted
      my horse, Wu came up beside me,
      put his hand on the saddle, and
      said gently, speaking in English to
      me for the first time, ‘I hope to see
      you again. Peaceful journey.
      Goodbye.’ ”

Seymour Topping, 98, Former Times Journalist and Witness to History, Dies

By ROBERT D. McFADDEN

Clockwise from left: Seymour Topping in The New York Times newsroom in 1966, the year he became foreign news editor; Times

employees in Saigon in 1965, from left, Peter Grose, Mr. Topping, Nguyen Ngoc Rao and Jack Langguth; and Mr. Topping in 1997.

DON HOGAN CHARLES/THE NEW YORK TIMES

THE NEW YORK TIMES

ROBERTA HERSHENSON

Mr. Topping with militiamen in the Cambodian jungle in 1964. He was the Southeast Asia bureau chief from 1963 to 1966.

AUDREY TOPPING/THE NEW YORK TIMES

An editor who shaped

the news coverage of a

tumultuous era.

Boorom, Virginia

Herz, Robert

Price, Holly

Sabatini, Albert

Yankwitt, Ian

BOOROM—Virginia.

Virginia (Ginny) Fiske Boor-

om of Lake Oswego, Oregon

passed away October 24 after

a brief battle with coronavi-

rus. She was born April 30,

1929 in Oak Park, Illinois to

Eunice Van Dyne Fiske and

Kenneth Morton Fiske. Ginny

graduatedfromNorthwes-

tern University in 1950. While

living in Hastings-on-Hudson,

she was a founder and pres-

ident of the Hudson River

Theta Club and the Kappa Al-

pha Theta's State Chairman

and Alumnae Rushing Chair-

man for Westchester County

and an officer of the Hastings

Republican Club. She moved

to Riverside, CT in 1964 and

was a reporter for eight years

for The Village Gazette, the

Greenwich weekly newspa-

per. She was a member and

Vice President of the River-

sideAssociationBoardof

Governors 1977-1981, a mem-

ber of the Greenwich Point

Committee 1982-1991, and

co-authored the Greenwich

Point Master Plan. She was

predeceased by her son John,

her husband of 58 years, ABC

Executive Warren Boorom,

and brother Kenneth Fiske.

Surviving her are her son

Kenneth, daughter - in - law

Tessa Hanover, grandchild-

ren Austin and Natasha,

nieces Jennifer Fiske, Diana

Wilson, and Nancy Readel

and cousin Nancy Fleming.

Memorial donations may be

made to the Natural Resour-

ces Defense Council.

HERZ—Robert Cannel.

Bob lost his valiant struggle

withpancreaticcanceron

November 7, 2020. His quick

wit, his culinary skills, his vast

knowledge of Broadway

shows and world history, and

yes, even his provocative pol-

itical views, will be greatly

missed by his wife Rosalind

Fink, son Zachary Herz, loyal

(if troubled) canine compa-

nion Javier, niece and nep-

hew Adam and Elizabeth Ju-

viler and their families, his

manyfriendsfromGrace

Court to Bogota, and all those

Cannel and Herz cousins who

so enriched his life. We take

comfort in knowing that he

has been united with his be-

loved Parsifal and Augie.

PRICE—Holly Cara,

65, cancer warrior nonpareil,

died peacefully at home in

her sleep on November 7th,

2020, once she learned that

Biden had won the election.

She is survived by a host of

friends and her beloved cat,

Thaddeus, who has now gone

to live in New Paltz, NY in a

big house with Dayle. Holly

discovered rock and roll at a

very early age and was an

assistant to Steven Van Zandt

for many years and a partici-

pantin manytourswith

Bruce Springsteen's E Street

Band. In addition, she was a

producer, researcher, publi-

cist, and social media expert

for many TV shows, movies,

Getty Images and the Rock

and Roll Hall of Fame. She

was a great lover of cats and

those wishing to memorialize

Holly should send donations

to The Humane Society of

New York, who rescued

Thaddeus.

SABATINI, Albert J., M.D.

Psychiatrist, recognized for

his work treating the home-

less mentally ill in New York

City,passedawayathis

home on the Upper East Side

on October 29, at age 87. A na-

tive of the Bronx, he graduat-

ed from Columbia University,

served in the Army at Fort

Bliss, Texas, and received his

M.D. from the University of

Bologna, Italy. He began his

career at Bellevue Psychia-

tric Hospital with a Psychia-

tric Residency, and rose to

become Medical Director, a

positionheheldforeight

years. Dr. Sabatini was Asso-

ciate Attending Psychiatrist

at NYU Medical Center, Staff

Psychiatrist at the Manhattan

VA Hospital, and Research

Associate Professor of Psy-

chiatry at NYU School of Me-

dicine. He served on many

important committees in-

cluding the New York State

CommissiononQualityof

Care Task Force on Criminal

Justice and Mental Health.

Dr. Sabatini maintained a pri-

vate practice in NYC for over

50 years. Connoisseurof

opera and musical theater,

loverofcrosswords,Italy,

and a good Negroni, Al was

aconsummate gentleman

whose intellect, wit, warmth

and generosity will be missed

by all who knew him. He is

survived by his sister Olga

Welsh,niecesLeslie,Lisa,

Melissa and nephew Charlie,

second cousin Arthur Sabati-

ni, niece Carol Capano, nep-

hew Billy Sabatini, and addi-

tional extended family mem-

bers. Memorial contributions

may bedirected tothe

Floating Hospital at:

https://www.thefloating

hospital.org/AlSabatini

or by mail: The Floating

Hospital, Attn: Sam Lamont,

POBox3391,NewYork,

NY 10163-

YANKWITT—Ian Jeffrey,

age 52, of White Plains, NY,

died Thursday, November 5,

2020. Ian is remembered for
      his larger-than-life persona.
      His intellect, kindness, gene-
      rosity, principles, moral lead-
      ership, devotion to social jus-
      tice, friendship, gift for con-
      versation,advice,storytell-
      ing, card-playing, and power-
      fully resonant voice are
      among the many qualities
      that made Ian uniquely me-
      morable to those fortunate
      enough to have known him.
      No one was trusted more by
      more people. Born in Brook-
      lyn March 12, 1968, Ian began
      speaking at seven months of
      age. By five, he was familiar
      with Nixon's entire cabinet,
      including “that[expletive],
      Agnew.” Ian was a voracious
      reader, plowing through mys-
      teries, finance works, and his-
      tories, as well as reading the
      books assigned in daughter
      Ruthie's college classes. His
      appetite for food was similar-
      ly broad, and he was known
      for his menu skills, frequently
      ordering dishes “for the tab-
      le.” Ian attended the Horace
      Mann School (1985), where he
      captained the football, wres-
      tling, and track teams his se-
      nior year, and was reported
      in the April Fool's Day issue
      of the school paper to have

wontheschoolfromthe

headmaster in a game of

Spades. He went on to gra-

duate from Yale (1989) and

CornellLawSchool(1993)

and served as a law clerk on

the Second Circuit Court of

Appeals. He practiced law for

ten years, first at Simpson

Thacher& BartlettLLP,

where he was known for his

pro bono work, and where he

met his wife of 23 years,

Rochelle. Ian left the private

sector to join the Federal De-

fenders of New York, where

he worked for the remainder

of his legal career. The drive

for social justice expressed as

a public defender remained a

passion throughout his life,

and he served on the Adviso-

ry Board of Gideon's Prom-

ise, a nonprofit public defen-

der organization. At age 35,

Ian founded Tortoise Invest-

ment Management, LLC,

starting in the family base-

ment and building the busi-

ness to over $1 billion in as-

sets under management. As

much as the success of the

firm, Ian valued the relation-

ships he shared with clients

and colleagues at Tortoise.

Ian actively promoted cama-

raderie at Tortoise, working

to shape the careers of his

employees as a mentor and

friend, while serving the best

interests of clients. Ian's ca-

pacity for friendship was un-

bounded, and he maintained

close ties with people from

every phase of his life. Short-

ly after marrying Rochelle,

the couple traveled to Las

Vegas with a group of 49

people to gamble and watch

the Super Bowl. For so many

friends, Ian was a trusted con-

fidante and advisor, in all as-

pects of life. He was ener-

gized bysocializing with

friends, even as his illness

sapped his strength, and that

animation in conversation of-

ten concealed the extent of

his disease and symptoms.

Ian is survived by his wife,

Rochelle, for whom he was

best friend and life partner,

offering love and loyalty un-

known by most, their two

children, Ruthie and Casey,

his father George and wife

Mary Chang, brother Russell

and wife Debbie, as well as

their children, Aden and

Shayna, and nephew Jude

Yankwitt.Ianwasprede-

ceased by his mother, Ad-

rienne,andbrotherCraig.

Ian's dedication to family and

friends is unsurpassed. A ce-

lebration of Ian's life will be

held when his many loved

ones can gather and eat. Do-

nations in Ian's memory may

be sent to Gideon's Promise,

http://www.gideonspromise.org.

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