science · 14 January 2005 · 20 years ago
death
Died 14 Jan 2005 at age 85 (born 22 Jul 1919).
American editor who steered the Scientific American for 37 years (1947-84) and established a new style for the magazine of inviting scientists to write its articles, with support from an editor and illustrator, aimed at the general reader. Those writers included such eminent scientists as Albert Einstein, Linus Pauling and J. Robert Oppenheimer. The first issue of Scientific American was on 28 Aug 1845, but it was the new leadership of new owners (1847), Orson Munn and Alfred Eli Beach, who made it prospect. A century later, Flanagan rescued the magazine in the post WW II years when it was failing financially. With partners and investors, and his editorial innovation, the circulation rose from 40,000 to 600,000 by the time he retired. Flanagan had lost his hearing at age 9, but learned to lip-read.
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