Tanzer, Lester 1929-2004
TANZER, Lester 1929-2004
OBITUARY NOTICE—
See index for CA sketch: Born August 3, 1929, in New York, NY; died December 8, 2004, in Arlington, VA. Journalist and author. Tanzer was a highly respected journalist and former managing editor of U.S. News & World Report. Graduating from Columbia University with a bachelor's degree in 1951 and a master's degree in 1952, his first job was as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal during the 1950s. From 1959 until 1964, he was an associate editor for Changing Times. Tanzer joined the U.S. News staff in 1964 as an associate executive editor, and from 1976 until 1985 he was managing editor. During this time, he helped launch the newspaper's annual college-rating guide, which has since then become a standard source of information for prospective college students and their parents. Respected by his peers as an editor and talented writer, he left the paper in 1985, the year before it was bought out by Mort Zuckerman. Later, as a member of the Cosmos Club, Tanzer was founding editor of Cosmos: A Journal of Emerging Issues in 1990, and he also edited the club's bulletin during the early 1990s. He was the editor of The Kennedy Circle (1961) and coauthor of Brotherhood of Silence (1963). During his last years he suffered increasingly from Parkinson's disease.
OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:
PERIODICALS
Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), December 13, 2004, p. 20.
Washington Post, December 12, 2004, p. C11.