Stern, Daniel 1928-2007

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born January 18, 1928, in New York, NY; died of complications from heart surgery, January 24, 2007, in Houston, TX. Business executive, musician, educator, and author. A Puschcart Prize and O. Henry Award winner, Stern was an acclaimed novelist and short-story author. Despite being best known as a writer, he had a complex vocational background in many fields. He originally studied the cello at the famous New York High School of Music and Art and played with Charlie Parker and the Indianapolis Symphony. The Houston Symphony Orchestra hired him next, but Stern decided instead to go home to New York. Stern had received positive feedback in a writing class at the New School, which he had attended on the G.I. Bill, and endeavored to make freelancing a career. He contributed to magazines through the late 1950s before changing careers again. This time, he was involved in advertising. He was a copy writer for Doner & Peck, then made senior vice president and managing director at McCann-Erickson Advertising from 1964 to 1969. Among his campaigns were advertising for Buick and a promotion for the movie Woodstock. From 1969 to 1972 he was vice president of advertising and publicity for Warner Bros. In the early 1970s, he served as an executive for Longchamps, Inc., and for Lubar-Southard. By this time, Stern had been publishing for years. His first novel, The Girl with the Glass Heart, came out in 1953. It was followed by such works as Who Shall Live, Who Shall Die (1963), The Suicide Academy (1968), and Final Cut (1975). After the novel Happiness in Cities (1980), Stern released several collections of his acclaimed short stories, including Twice-Told Tales (1989), One Day's Perfect Weather: More Twice-Told Tales (1999), and In the Country of the Young (2000). His last book was A Little Street Music: Novella and Stories (2004). As a short-story author, Stern was said to have created a new genre in which he interlaced original stories within the well-known works of such authors as Ernest Hemingway and Jorge Luis Borges. His fiction earned him two O. Henry Awards and two Puschcart Prizes, as well as the Rosenthal Award for Literary Distinction from the American Academy of Letters, and other honors. Despite such literary success, Stern continued to work in a variety of jobs. He pursued a teaching career as a visiting professor of humanities at Wesleyan University in the late 1970s and was, most recently, a faculty member at the University of Houston. At Houston he was professor of English and creative writing in 1992 and, beginning in 1993, Cullen Distinguished Professor of English. He also maintained a foot in the entertainment industry as vice president of East Coast promotion for CBS Entertainment from 1979 to 1986 and as president of the entertainment division of McCaffrey and McCall Advertising in the mid-1980s. Somewhat oddly, he even served as director of humanities for the 92nd Street YMCA in New York City in 1988.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

New York Times, January 26, 2007, p. C11.