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Elaine Schwartz, Longtime Principal of an Innovative School, Dies at 92
A co-founder of the Center School in Manhattan, she implemented once-radical ideas that put the students first. She retired four decades later, at 91.
By Clay Risen
I write about all manner of fascinating lives — a pioneering oyster farmer in Louisiana, a French pianist still recording albums in her 100s and one of the last victims of the Red Scare, to name a few. Obviously, the reason for writing an obituary is the recent death of its subject. But to me they are really about people’s lives, how they lived them and why they mattered. Each is a brick in a wall that together constitutes our shared history.
On occasion, I also write about spirits, and whiskey in particular, for the Food section, drawing on an interest that goes back to my earliest days as a journalist.
I have been at The New York Times since 2010. Before writing obituaries, I was a senior editor on the 2020 politics team, and before that an editor on the Opinion desk, most recently as the deputy Op-ed editor. I previously worked at The New Republic and Democracy: A Journal of Ideas.
I have written eight books, some about U.S. history, some about whiskey. They include “American Rye” and “The Crowded Hour: Theodore Roosevelt, the Rough Riders, and the Dawn of the American Century.”
I have a degree in international relations from Georgetown University and a master’s in social science from the University of Chicago.
As a reporter for The New York Times, I am committed to upholding the standards of integrity outlined in our Ethical Journalism Handbook. Above all that means treating every subject and source fairly and without preference.
Email: [email protected]
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