Joseph Wharton Lippincott Jr., (1914–2003) was Chairman and President of Philadelphia publisher

J. B. Lippincott Company J. B. Lippincott & Co. was an American publishing house founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1836 by Joshua Ballinger Lippincott. It was incorporated in 1885 as J. B. Lippincott Company. History 1836–1977 Joshua Ballinger Lippincott (Marc ...

. He was born in

Bethayres, Pennsylvania Bethayres is an unincorporated community in Lower Moreland Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is named for Elizabeth Ayres, who lived at 2410 Huntingdon Pike, in a house now owned by Huntingdon Valley Presbyterian Church ...

, the son of

Joseph Wharton Lippincott Joseph Wharton Lippincott (February 28, 1887 – October 22, 1976) was a noted publisher, author, naturalist, and sportsman. He was the grandson of Joshua Ballinger Lippincott, founder of Philadelphia publisher J.B. Lippincott Company, and of i ...

and Elizabeth Schuyler Mills Lippincott. He was a descendant of Joshua Ballinger Lippincott, founder of J. B. Lippincott Company, and a great-grandson of

Joseph Wharton Joseph Wharton (March 3, 1826 – January 11, 1909) was an American industrialist. He was involved in mining, manufacturing and education. He founded the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, co-founded the Bethlehem Steel compa ...

, founder of the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania.

Education

Lippincott went to the Meadowbrook School and then to St. Paul's School before attending

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the n ...

Career

In 1937 he joined the family firm he would serve for 41 years. During his years as president, Lippincott oversaw the rapid expansion of the company in the 1950s and 1960s, the transformation of Lippincott into a public company in 1972, and its eventual acquisition by Harper & Row (now called “

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News C ...

”) in 1978.

Innovations

Many of J. B. Lippincott Company's well-known elementary and high school educational products were launched during his presidency, including Basic Keys to Spelling, Lippincott's Basic Reading, and Beginning to Read, Write and Listen. Mr. Lippincott was also responsible for expanding the company’s business outside of the United States, and made frequent trips to Europe and across the Pacific to Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines.

Support for libraries

Lippincott was an active supporter of libraries, serving on the boards of Trustees of the

Free Library of Philadelphia The Free Library of Philadelphia is the public library system that serves Philadelphia. It is the 13th-largest public library system in the United States. The Free Library of Philadelphia is a non-Mayoral agency of the City of Philadelphia gover ...

and of the Ludington Library in Bryn Mawr. He was also on the Boards of the Urban Libraries Council, the Council of the

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members ...

, the Council for Florida Libraries, the Friends of the Princeton Library, and the American Library Trustees Association. He regularly attended the annual meeting of the

(ALA) to present the Joseph W. Lippincott Award for Outstanding Achievement in Librarianship, which was named for and founded by his father in 1938. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious awards given by the ALA.

Family

Lippincott married Marie Louise Beck in 1950. Together they had a son, Joseph W. Lippincott III, who was President of

Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW) is an American imprint of the American Dutch publishing conglomerate Wolters Kluwer. It was established by the acquisition of Williams & Wilkins and its merger with J.B. Lippincott Company in 1998. Under the ...

, 1998–2000. Mr. Lippincott also had a daughter from a previous marriage, Elizabeth L. Mather. Lippincott died in

Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania Bryn Mawr, pronounced , from Welsh for big hill, is a census-designated place (CDP) located across three townships: Radnor Township and Haverford Township in Delaware County, and Lower Merion Township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. I ...

References

External links

Obituary
at the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Lippincott, Joseph Wharton Jr. American publishers (people) 1914 births 2003 deaths