Elihu Ben Klein ’51

Elihu Ben Klein ’51 died on February 11. “Woody” was an award-winning journalist and author, network TV and radio news correspondent, press secretary to the mayor of New York City, corporate communications executive, and adjunct professor of journalism. Woody’s lifelong love affair with journalism began in high school, where he was co-editor of the school paper. At Dartmouth he was the sports editor of The Daily Dartmouth and a stringer for the Associated Press. He earned a master’s in journalism at Columbia University and served as a public information officer in the U.S. Army. After a short stint at The Washington Post, he joined the New York World Telegram. His beat was investigative and undercover reporting and he focused on poverty, housing, social justice, and politics. During that period his series, “I Lived in a Slum,” was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Woody vividly described his experience as a tenant trapped in the squalor of “the worst slum building in New York City.” In 1965 N.Y.C. Mayor-elect John Lindsay tapped Woody to be his press secretary. He filled that role for three years and wrote the first of eight books, Lindsay’s Promise: The Dream That Failed. Woody spent the next 24 years as director of corporate communications and editor of Think magazine for IBM. Upon “retirement” in 1992 he joined the Westport (Connecticut) News as editor and later as a columnist. His biweekly column, “Out of the Woods,” was widely acclaimed.