Albert Landa; Helped "The New School" Develop, 80
DGH
Albert Landa Dies at 80; Helped the New School Develop
By DENNIS HEVESI [New York TImes]
Albert W. Landa, a public relations executive who went far beyond that
role in helping to develop the New School in Manhattan [New York] into
a full-scale university, died on January 26 [2008] in Manhattan. He
was 80.
The cause was cancer, said his daughter Ruth Landa.
Mr. Landa was the school's public relations director from 1960 to 1975
and, for the next 10 years, its executive vice president for
development and public affairs. He was an important player in several
mergers that helped the university solve its fiscal problems and
expand its enrollment, and he led the team for one of them.
"He wasn't just the communications guy," Jonathan Fanton, a former
president of the university, said on Wednesday. "Al was deeply
involved in the substance of the New School."
Dr. Fanton, who is now president of the John D. and Catherine T.
MacArthur Foundation, said, "Al helped transform the New School into a
university that responded to the unmet educational needs of thousands
of New Yorkers."
An institution that sees itself as an unconventional alternative to
other colleges, the New School was founded in 1919 by a group of
professors, including the philosopher and education reformer John
Dewey, who had resigned in protest from Columbia. They could not abide
by a requirement of Columbia's president at the time, Nicholas Murray
Butler, that faculty members support America's entry into World War
I.
The rebels started what was then called the New School for Social
Research, in Greenwich Village, with a curriculum meant for adults and
focused on social issues. They later added courses in the arts. In
1933, the New School opened the University in Exile as a haven for
Jewish intellectuals fleeing the Nazis. It became the school's
Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science.
Facing financial difficulties in the 1960s, school officials decided
to expand enrollment by adding new divisions.
"This third phase very much bore the stamp of Al Landa," Dr. Fanton
said. "As the school expanded, its financial base became more
secure."
Mr. Landa was a leader in the development of the Graduate School of
Urban Policy (now called Milano the New School for Management and
Urban Policy), which was devoted to New York City issues. He also
helped arrange the 1970 merger with the Parsons School of Design, and
in 1978, he led the team that acquired the Otis Art Institute in Los
Angeles, which became a division of Parsons; it became independent
again in 1991.
The school's enrollment, which was about 7,000 in 1960, is now about
15,000.
Abraham Willie Landa (he chose to be called Albert) was born in Newark
[New Jersey] on June 9, 1927, the son of Bennett and Jean Landa. Mr.
Landa served in the Army Air Forces in World War II and graduated from
Long Island [New York] University in 1951.
His early public relations jobs were with Long Island University and
Yeshiva University. After retiring from the New School, he served as
executive director of the New York Academy of Art and as a member of
the selection committee for the George Polk Awards for excellence in
journalism.
Mr. Landa's marriage, to Joyce Wolf, ended in divorce. Besides his
daughter Ruth, of South Orange, New Jersey, he is survived by his
companion, Arien Mack of Manhattan; two other daughters, Emily
Jeffries of South Orange [New Jersey] and Julie Landa of Brooklyn [New
York]; a son, Ben, of Manhattan; and five grandchildren.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/nyregion/03landa.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries&oref=slogin