Ed Rondthaler Passed Away at the Age of 104
Dr. Edward Rondthaler, the co-founder of the International Typeface Corporation (ITC) died on August 19, 2009 in New York in his 105th year.
The son of a Bishop of the Moravian Church and his wife, who was the daughter of a pharmacist from Philadelphia, Ed became familiar with the printing industry early in his life when he was given a small printing press at age 5. In the 1930s, he worked for the Rutherford Machinery and, lateron, founded Photo Lettering, Inc. (1936). Based on his own words, Ed believed that his long life was due to a healthy lifestyle, his good gene pool and the cold shower he took every day. He was married to his wife Dorothy Reid for 72 years. From 1946 to 2008 he lived in his »Sears Roebuck Catalog Home« outside New York City.
The idea to form the International Typeface Corporation in 1969 was revolutionary as ITC was the first type foundry that no longer concerned itself with hot metal type. Elsner+Flake Designstudios also digitized many typefaces for ITC in the company’s early years. For many years enormous gray mailbags arrived every three months with the insignia »U.S. Mail« imprinted on them - they were filled with hundreds of copies of the large format publication »U&lc« (Upper and Lower Case) with which the company advertised to its German customers.
Veronika Elsner, who had known Ed from the early days of the ITC, saw him for the last time at the TypeCon 2005 in New York. He made a presentation called »Photo Lettering: Back to the Future« together with Ed Benguiat and Ken Barber. If you would like to hear his voice, you might want to tune into his interview on Typeradio. Ed wrote several books, among them »Life with Letters – as they turned photogenic«. This book provides a good insight into his life, in part autobiographic and in part type-historic.
We mourn this pioneer of typographic development and will always remember him as a driving force in typographic history.
The son of a Bishop of the Moravian Church and his wife, who was the daughter of a pharmacist from Philadelphia, Ed became familiar with the printing industry early in his life when he was given a small printing press at age 5. In the 1930s, he worked for the Rutherford Machinery and, lateron, founded Photo Lettering, Inc. (1936). Based on his own words, Ed believed that his long life was due to a healthy lifestyle, his good gene pool and the cold shower he took every day. He was married to his wife Dorothy Reid for 72 years. From 1946 to 2008 he lived in his »Sears Roebuck Catalog Home« outside New York City.
The idea to form the International Typeface Corporation in 1969 was revolutionary as ITC was the first type foundry that no longer concerned itself with hot metal type. Elsner+Flake Designstudios also digitized many typefaces for ITC in the company’s early years. For many years enormous gray mailbags arrived every three months with the insignia »U.S. Mail« imprinted on them - they were filled with hundreds of copies of the large format publication »U&lc« (Upper and Lower Case) with which the company advertised to its German customers.
Veronika Elsner, who had known Ed from the early days of the ITC, saw him for the last time at the TypeCon 2005 in New York. He made a presentation called »Photo Lettering: Back to the Future« together with Ed Benguiat and Ken Barber. If you would like to hear his voice, you might want to tune into his interview on Typeradio. Ed wrote several books, among them »Life with Letters – as they turned photogenic«. This book provides a good insight into his life, in part autobiographic and in part type-historic.
We mourn this pioneer of typographic development and will always remember him as a driving force in typographic history.
Picture 1: Ed Rondthaler and Ed Benguiat during their presentation at the TypeCon 2005 in New York.
Picture 2: Colorful and very American, a birthday cake for Ed Rondthaler's 100th anniverary. Photos: Veronika Elsner
