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LYFORD Joseph Philip
Birth: 4 Aug 1918 Chicago, Ill.
Death: 2 Dec 1992 Contra Costa Co., Cal.
Burial: Benson Cemetery, Bernard, Hancock Co., Me.
Notes
www.geni.com/people/Lewis-Thomas
http://prabook.org/web/person-view.html?profileId=617252
Joseph Philip Lyford
educator, former journalism educator
Joseph Philip Lyford, American former journalism educator. Decorated for outstanding
performance of duty during Okinawa invasion, 1947; recipient Sidney Hillman
Foundation award in literature, 1967.
Background
Lyford, Joseph Philip was born on August 4, 1918 in Chicago.
Education
Graduate, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, 1937; AB with honors, Harvard,
1941.
Career
Reporter Boston Post, 1938-1941, International News Service, 1946-1947. Assistant
editor New Republic, 1947-1948. Press secretary to Governor Bowles of Connecticut,
1949-1950.
Executive secretary to Senator Benton of Connecticut, 1950. European correspondent
Hartford (Connecticut) Times, 1951. Director staff Public Education Association, New
York City, 1953-1955.
Executive Fund for Republic, 1955-1966. Professor journalism University California-
Berkeley, from 1966, now professor emeritus. Consultant Center Study Democratic
Institutions, Santa Barbara, California, 1966-1992, Public Broadcast Laboratory, New
York City, 1968, subcommittee executive reorganization United States Senate, 1966.
Works
books ? The Airtight Cage: A Study Of New York's West Side
Good paperback.
? The Talk in Vandalia
? Talk in Vandalia
? The talk in Vandalia,: A report to the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions
All works
Religion
Denomination: Congregational
Membership
Member board education District 5, New York City, 1964-1966, chairman Democratic
Town Committee, Westport, Connecticut, 1950-1952, Democratic candidate for
Congress, 1952, 54, president Fund For Peace, New York City, 1969-1971, trustee,
1969-1992. Served to lieutenant United States Naval Reserve, 1941-1946. Member
Council Foreign Relations.
Connections
Son of Philip and Ruth (Pray) L. Married Margaretta Jean Thomas, February 16, 1963.
Children: Amy Jean, Joseph Philip.
child: Amy Jean
child: Joseph Philip
mother: Ruth (Pray) L.
spouse: Margaretta Jean Thomas
father: Philip
18 Feb 1963 Bridgeport Post p 36, reports marriage, md by Rev Leonard Helie, pastor
of the Universalist Church of the Divine Paternity, served as lt in US Navy WW2 (in
file)
1940 in Weston, Conn. Says born in Maine
1930 in Chicago, Ill. Says born in Ill.
US Dept of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, served 29 Jan 1942 to 13 Aug 1946
Cal Death Idx on ancestry
findagrave
http://articles.courant.com/1992-12-03/news/0000109086_1_airtight-cage-professor-
lyford-memorial-service
Philip Lyford, 74
Was Professor, Politician
December 03, 1992|By MINDY ANTONIO; Courant Staff Writer
Joseph Philip Lyford, an author and journalism professor who was active in
Connecticut Democratic politics during the 1940s and 1950s, died Wednesday at a
nursing home in Orinda, Calif. He was 74 and lived previously in Westport.
Professor Lyford, a former newspaperman, had been ill for about five years and died of
Alzheimer's disease, said Penn Kimball of Washington, D.C., a friend and former
Westport resident.
He was professor emeritus at the Graduate School of Journalism, University of
California, Berkeley.
Professor Lyford came on the Connecticut political scene in 1949 as press secretary
to then-Gov. Chester Bowles. He ran for U.S. Congress from the 4th District in 1952
and representative at large in Westport in 1954, and was unsuccessful both times. He
was chairman of the Westport Democratic Town Committee from 1950 to 1952.
Born in Chicago, he moved with his family to Westport as a child. He attended Phillips
Academy in Andover, Mass., and graduated from Harvard College in 1941. He served
five years with Navy forces in the Pacific.
Professor Lyford began teaching at the University of California in 1966, specializing in
urban politics. He retired in the early 1980s.
He wrote several books, including "The Airtight Cage," published in 1966, about the
deterioration of the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The book earned him the Sidney
Hillman Foundation Award in literature.
He also was a reporter for the Boston Post from 1938 to 1941, a correspondent for the
International News Service from 1946 to 1947, assistant editor of the New Republic
from 1947 to 1948, and European correspondent for the Hartford Times in 1951.
A memorial service will be held Monday at Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church,
Orinda, Calif. Memorial donations may be made to the Joseph P. Lyford Scholarship
Fund, c/o Graduate School of Journalism, 121 North Gate Hall, University of
California, Berkeley, CA 94720 -
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/04/us/j-p-lyford-journalism-teacher-who-studied-
city-life-dies-at-74.html
J. P. Lyford, Journalism Teacher Who Studied City Life, Dies at 74
By WOLFGANG SAXON
Published: December 4, 1992
Joseph P. Lyford, a California journalism teacher who drew national attention with
close-up portraits of a sleepy rural community and a densely urban one, died
Wednesday at a nursing home in Orinda, Calif. He was 74 years old.
He suffered from Alzheimer's disease, his family said.
Mr. Lyford was a resident of Orinda. A former reporter, he was professor emeritus at
the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley. In his
seminars he taught students to look at urban affairs with the eyes of academic
sociologists.
He was a pioneer of the technique in his book "The Talk in Vandalia" (Harper, 1966),
a study of a small town in Illinois. The book, which he wrote when he was in his 40's,
found that its people faced many problems as they made the passage to modern
America from the smugly provincial mediocrity of Sinclair Lewis's "Main Street."
Absorbed the Atmosphere
"The Airtight Cage" (Harper, 1966) grew from years of study of the Upper West Side of
Manhattan, where he lived for a time to interview residents and absorb the
atmosphere. He found a breakdown of programs meant to lift the lives of the urban
poor. The book, whose title came from a speech by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.,
won a Hillman Award in 1967 for "outstanding achievement in mass communications."
Professor Lyford asserted that an urban atmosphere rife with violence, drug addiction
and muggings caused many urban residents to "seal themselves in at night" as if in a
"fortress of fear."
Joseph Philip Lyford was born in Chicago and graduated with honors from Harvard. He
served as an officer in the Navy in World War II and was decorated after the invasion
of Okinawa.
After working as a reporter and editor, he became press secretary to Gov. Chester
Bowles of Connecticut. He ran unsuccessfully for Congress from Connecticut in 1952
and 1954 as a Democrat. Taught Urban Reporting
From 1955 to 1966 he was an executive of the Fund for The Republic, the parent
organization of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, for which he
conducted his West Side survey in New York.
In 1966, he joined the faculty in Berkeley and taught a seminar on urban-affairs
reportage. He taught graduate and undergraduate courses until 1983, when illness
overcame him.
Professor Lyford is survived by his wife, the former Jean Thomas; a daughter, Amy
Lyford of Walnut Creek, Calif.; a son, Joseph Jr., of Oakland, Calif.; two sisters,
Harriet Rauh of Norwalk, Conn., and Ruth Sussler of New London, Conn.; and a
brother, Roger, of Tampa, Fla.
Photo: Joseph P. Lyford (1966)
Parents
LYFORD Philip ()
PRAY Ruth ()
Siblings
LYFORD Joseph Philip (4 Aug 1918 - 2 Dec 1992)
Marriage To THOMAS Margaretta Jean (20 Dec 1929 - 8 Dec 2014)
m. 16 Feb 1963 Plaza Hotel, New York, N.Y.
Notes
Parents
THOMAS Lewis Jones (28 Dec 1906 - 13 Sep 1976)
SCHMID Margaretta Eleanore (29 Apr 1906 - 23 May 1990)
Children by THOMAS Margaretta Jean 20 Dec 1929 - 8 Dec 2014
LYFORD Amy Jean ()
LYFORD Joseph Philip ()
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