Skip to main content

Howard M. Epstein, Publishing Executive

Thu, 03/09/2023 - 09:41

April 27, 1927 - March 1, 2023

Howard M. Epstein, an editor and publishing executive who was president of Facts on File, a news digest and reference publishing company, from 1975 until 1990, died on March 1 in Manhattan of complications from Parkinson’s disease. He was 96.

Mr. Epstein, who spent weekends and summers for nearly 50 years in a house on Three Mile Harbor-Hog Creek Road in Springs, was at the time of his death working on a book about French partisans and/or collaborators “who saved, or did not save, or hunted Jewish children during the Nazi occupation of France,” according to his family.

Described in an online obituary on the Dignity Memorial website as “a lifelong Francophile,” Mr. Epstein served with the Navy in the Pacific during World War II, and then attended the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris, the highly selective “Sciences Po,” on the G.I. Bill. He earned his B.A. at Queens College and did graduate study at the University of Chicago.

While a reporter in Ohio on the Xenia Daily Gazette, Mr. Epstein met his future wife, Cynthia Fuchs, also a native New Yorker, who worked at the nearby Yellow Springs News. They were married on July 3, 1954, and returned to New York.

In 1958, he began working with Facts on File. In a 1978 interview in this newspaper, he described Facts on File as “a very tightly compressed weekly digest of the news, indexed very thoroughly,” that drew from publications in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Britain, France, Venezuela, Cuba, and Australia. “Our clients include broadcasting networks, news services, magazines, government and university research libraries, public libraries, colleges, universities,” he told The Star. “All the spies buy it . . . both sides.”

In addition to its weekly digests, the company’s imprint Checkmark Books, which Mr. Epstein started, published indexed yearbooks of the digests and reference books, with such titles as “Atlas of World Population History,” “Political Prisoners: A World Report,” “Atomic Energy & the Safety Controversy,” and a biographical profile series covering presidential administrations.

The Epsteins first came to the South Fork with their young son, Alexander, as what were then called groupers, renting share-houses with friends, among them Betty Friedan. “It was really a kind of family,” Mr. Epstein said in the interview. “The kids loved it. All of the adults took an interest in the children. The kids had their responsibilities, too.”

The couple bought their Springs house in 1975; they also lived on Riverside Drive in Manhattan.

“A nurturing man, a mensch, he took care of everyone around him,” according to his obituary on the Dignity Memorial site. “He loved sailboats, British roadsters, catboats, and making sure his friends had enough wine to drink.”

Mr. Epstein was born in New York on April 27, 1927, to Samuel Epstein and the former Florrie Gilbert. He grew up in Queens.

He is survived by his wife, his son, Alexander Epstein of Montreal, and a grandchild, Jesse Anne Epstein.

A memorial service will be held in Manhattan next Thursday at the Riverside Chapel, 180 West 76th Street, at 3:30 p.m.

Villages

Rector of St. Luke's Takes Key Role in Coast Guard Chaplain Program

The Rev. Benjamin (Chaps) Shambaugh, who serves in the Coast Guard’s Auxiliary Chaplain Support program, became the branch chief of the Coast Guard’s Atlantic Area East on Jan. 1. In that role, he will oversee chaplains who care for Coast Guard members and their families from Canada to the Caribbean and in Europe and other areas abroad. 

Jan 10, 2025

Deep History in Sag Harbor Headstones’ Restoration

While Captain Beebee’s headstone now sits pristine atop the hill next to the Old Whalers Church, the rest of the family’s six plots sit in disrepair. Recently, however, the museum received a $10,000 grant from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation, which will allow for the restoration of the remaining headstones.

Jan 9, 2025

Traffic-Calming Ideas for Wainscott

Looking ahead to the problem of summer traffic, David and Stacey Brodsky of Wainscott have a plan that they believe will alleviate the burden created by cars using some of the hamlet’s back roads to bypass Montauk Highway.

Jan 9, 2025

 

Your support for The East Hampton Star helps us deliver the news, arts, and community information you need. Whether you are an online subscriber, get the paper in the mail, delivered to your door in Manhattan, or are just passing through, every reader counts. We value you for being part of The Star family.

Your subscription to The Star does more than get you great arts, news, sports, and outdoors stories. It makes everything we do possible.