STANLEY FLINK

FLINK--Stanley E. Stanley Edgar Flink, an accomplished author, journalist for Life Magazine and Founding Director of the Department of Public Information at Yale University where he subsequently became a professor, died at the age of 98 in North Branford, Connecticut on December 31, 2022. Flink graduated from Yale in 1948 after serving as a second Lieutenant Field Artillery, Saipan, in the U.S. Army during WWII from 1943-46. During his decade at "Time and Life" from 1948-58, he profiled major motion picture actors and political figures including William Holden, Marilyn Monroe, Marion Davies, William Randolph Hearst, Howard Hughes, Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy. His 1953 Life Magazine piece on Monroe was a milestone moment for the actress, helping to launch her career toward another level. After his article on the reclusive Hughes was printed, an agitated Hughes telephoned Flink at his office and asked, "Why did you mention that I was wearing tennis shoes when we spoke?" Flink replied, "Because you were." Shifting to television in 1958, he worked for the acclaimed "Today Show" on NBC with Dave Garroway as a writer and producer. He was also a producer-writer for CBS television, including the documentary "Report from Hong Kong" with Holden. In 1965, he moved to London for eight years, producing the first "Playbill" for theater goers in Great Britain and publishing "Wildlife Crisis" for the World Wildlife Fund which was co-authored by HRH Prince Philip. Flink returned to the U.S. in 1973, leading Yale's Department of Public Information and Alumni Communications, working for three Presidents - Kingman Brewster, Hanna Gray and A. Bartlett Giamatti. By the middle of the 1980's, he was teaching at NYU Graduate School on responsible journalism and the First Amendment. He held a class at Yale on the same topic starting in 1990 which lasted nearly twenty years. In 1994, Flink was the recipient of the prestigious "Yale Medal" for distinguished service to the University. He was the author of three books across his lifetime, including a history of the U.S. press called "Sentinel Under Siege" in 1997 and "Due Diligence and the News" in 2019. He kept lecturing until weeks before he died at his assisted living facility "Evergreen Woods" in Connecticut, addressing Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Democracy among his chief topics. Flink is survived by his wife of 47 years, Joy; his daughter, Wendy Levey, an esteemed Nursery School Director and consultant in New York and her husband Richard Gottlieb; his son Steve Flink, a writer inducted at the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2017; daughter-in-law Frances Flink, of Katonah, New York; four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.