Ralph Paine Jr.

Ralph "Del" Delahaye Paine Jr. (March 31, 1906^[1] – January 12, 1991^[2]) was an American editor and publisher.

Born in Newark, New Jersey,^[2] Paine was the son of author and journalist Ralph Delahaye Paine. ^[3] Paine had two younger twin brothers, Stuart Douglas Paine, who became an Antarctic explorer,^[4] and Philbrook Ten Eyck Paine, born 1910.^[3] Paine attended Yale University, where he was a member of Skull and Bones,^[5] and graduated in 1929.

After college, Paine was a Wall Street securities analyst for Edward B. Smith & Co.^[2] He became a business editor for Time magazine in 1933.^[2] Following complaints about the content of Time from businesses during the Great Depression, he was offered the choice between a firing and a promotion provided a suitable replacement could be found. Paine lamented "I'm about to be fired unless I can find someone who can satisfy Time's advertisers without catering to them." Through Yale law professor William O. Douglas, he found that replacement, Eliot Janeway.^[6]

In 1938, he became personal assistant to publisher Henry Luce, the co-founder of Time.^[2] During World War II, he was in charge of The March of Time newsreel series and European operations of Time, Inc. publications.^[2] When the Nazis invaded France, Paine and other Time, Inc. staffers were forced to flee.^[7] He was later a war correspondent in the Pacific.^[2]

Paine served as managing editor of Fortune from 1941 to 1953 and, following the departure of Charles Douglas Jackson, publisher from 1953 to 1967. During his tenure, the magazine created its famous Fortune 500 list.^[2] Paine clashed with Luce and threatened to resign over Luce's desire to make Fortune more overtly pro-business and create an advisory board for the magazine composed of prominent businessmen.^[8] Paine also served as publisher of Architectural Forum from 1954 to 1963 and House and Home from 1962 to 1963.^[2]

In 1947, Paine married Nancy White, at the time associate fashion editor of Good Housekeeping and later editor of Harper's Bazaar. It was the second marriage for both of them and it later ended in divorce.^[9][10]

At the time of his death, Paine was president and treasurer of the Vermont real estate holdings company Barton Mountain Corporation.^[2]

References

1. Yale University. Class of 1894 (1922). Quarter-century record, class of 1894 Yale College. Printed for the class under the direction of the Class Secretaries Bureau. p. 330. Retrieved 2 August 2011.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
2. "Ralph Paine Jr., 84, Fortune's Publisher From 1953 to 1967". New York Times. January 15, 1991. pp. D19.
3. Obituary Record of Yale Graduates 1924–1925 (PDF). Yale University. August 1, 1925. pp. 1396–99.
4. Stuart D. L. Paine; M. L. Paine (2007). Footsteps on the ice: the Antarctic diaries of Stuart D. Paine, second Byrd Expedition. University of Missouri Press. ISBN 978-0-8262-1741-7. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
5. "SIXTY MEN TAPPED FOR YALE SOCIETIES: Annual Selection for Senior Bodies of Next Year Is Held on Campus". New York Times. 18 May 1928. p. 9.
6. Michael Janeway (July 2006). The Fall of the House of Roosevelt: Brokers of Ideas and Power from FDR to LBJ. Columbia University Press. p. 94. ISBN 978-0-231-13109-4. Retrieved 3 August 2011.
7. "Life Refugees from France: Its Paris Staff Joins Great Trek as a World and Era Die". Life. Time, Inc. 22 July 1940. pp. 74–75. ISSN 0024-3019. Retrieved 3 August 2011.
8. Alan Brinkley (20 April 2010). The publisher: Henry Luce and his American century. Random House Digital, Inc. pp. 326–327. ISBN 978-0-679-41444-5. Retrieved 3 August 2011.
9. . Time. August 4, 1947. Archived from the original on February 3, 2012. Retrieved August 3, 2011.
10. "Nancy White, Former Editor of Harper's Bazaar, Dies at 85". New York Times. May 29, 2002. Retrieved August 3, 2011.