John Jay Iselin (December 8, 1933 – May 6, 2008) was a magazine and television

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

, editor, and

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

. He served as president of

WNET WNET (channel 13), branded on-air as "Thirteen" (stylized as "THIRTEEN"), is a primary PBS member television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area. Owned by The WNET Group (formerly known as the ...

, president of the Cooper Union, and president of the

Marconi Foundation The Guglielmo Marconi International Fellowship Foundation, briefly called Marconi Foundation and currently known as The Marconi Society, was established by Gioia Marconi Braga in 1974 to commemorate the centennial of the birth (April 24, 1874) of h ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

Early life

Iselin was born on December 8, 1933 in Greenville, South Carolina. He was a son of Fanny ( Humphreys) Iselin, and William Jay Iselin, a New York banker who moved his family South, where he owned cotton mills, during the Great Depression. His father died in an airplane crash in Europe in April 1951. His paternal grandparents were Eleanor ( Jay) Iselin (a daughter of Col. William Jay) and Arthur Iselin (grandson of

Adrian Georg Iselin Adrian Georg Iselin (January 17, 1818 – March 28, 1905) was a New York financier who invested in and developed real estate, railroads, and mining operations. For many years during his early business career he was engaged in importing with his ...

). Through his father, his fourth great-grandfather was

United States founding father The Founding Fathers of the United States, known simply as the Founding Fathers or Founders, were a group of late-18th-century American Revolution, American revolutionary leaders who United Colonies, united the Thirteen Colonies, oversaw the Am ...

John Jay John Jay (December 12, 1745 – May 17, 1829) was an American statesman, patriot, diplomat, abolitionist, signatory of the Treaty of Paris, and a Founding Father of the United States. He served as the second governor of New York and the f ...

, the first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and through his mother, he was descended from

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

. His maternal grandfather was Richard Duane Humphreys of Barnstable, Mount Kisco, New York. Iselin was a graduate of St. Mark's School, and

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, where he served as

Managing Editor A managing editor (ME) is a senior member of a publication's management team. Typically, the managing editor reports directly to the editor-in-chief and oversees all aspects of the publication. United States In the United States, a managing edit ...

John Jay Iselin, Crimed
of the Crimson. In 1959, he was selected as a Marshall Scholar, and in 2001 became founding Chairman of the New York Marshall Committee. After Harvard, he went to Cambridge University where he studied law and received a master's degree before returning to Harvard where he earned a Ph.D. in government in 1964.

Career

In the early 1960s, Iselin went to work for ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

'', covering the

U.S. Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...

under

Robert F. Kennedy Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, ...

before becoming national affairs editor. He then succeeded Cass Canfield Jr. as publisher of the trade division of

Harper & Row Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins based in New York City. History J. & J. Harper (1817–1833) James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishin ...

, before becoming general manager of

in 1971. He later became president of WNET in 1973 and served in that role until his resignation in October 1986, remaining at the helm until the board named his successor, Dr. William F. Baker. From 1988 to 2000, Iselin was appointed president of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. During his years as president, "he completed a $50 million capital campaign, created endowed professorships in the schools of art, architecture and engineering and added new trustees and new deans for art and the humanities. In 2000 he became president of the Marconi Foundation, based at Columbia University, which supports innovations in telecommunications." He was also an adjunct faculty member of the

Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is located in Pulitzer Hall on the university's Morningside Heights campus in New York City. Founded in 1912 by Joseph Pulitzer, Columbia Journalism School is one of the oldest journalism s ...

Personal life

He was married to Josephine Lea Iselin, a partner in the New York law firm of Lankenau, Kovner & Kurtz. For over forty years, he spent his summers in Vinalhaven, Maine and had a family farm in Ghent, New York. Together, they were the parents of five children, including: * William Jay Iselin, who married Claudia Rose Thompson, in 1988. * Josephine Lea Iselin, who married Kenneth Andrew Pearce in 1991. * Fannie Humphreys Iselin, who married sculptor Christopher Manning Minot, sister of Susan Minot, in 1991. * Alison Jay Iselin, who married Daniel Jonathan Russell in 1995. Iselin died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

on May 6, 2008 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. At his death, he was survived by five children and thirteen grandchildren.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Iselin, John Jay 1933 births 2008 deaths Presidents of Cooper Union John Jay St. Mark's School (Massachusetts) alumni Marshall Scholars Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism faculty People from Greenville, South Carolina People from Vinalhaven, Maine The Harvard Crimson people Jay family