Ira Ellenthal's Bio

email: iellenthal@gmail.com

Ira Ellenthal is a Rockaway native who, after reading one issue of Rockaway Memories, committed to becoming a monthly contributor. Ira has written two books, one a memoir of his father. It's called Slootie's Wars and much of it is set in the Rockaways. During a long and continuing career in publishing, he has served as president and associate publisher of the New York Daily News, as well as CEO of U.S. News & World Report and The Atlantic. At 73 ("I just turned it," he says), Ira has no inclination to retire. He serves presently as executive vice president of a Spanish-language daily in San Juan, PR and, on September 1, 2010, he plans to launch a monthly how-to magazine on the Internet, devoted entirely to the art of selling, the subject of his first book in 1982. Ira has been married for 48 years and has three sons and eight grandchildren, all of whom live within 30 minutes of his Old Greenwich, CT home. He remembers his Rockaway roots fondly. "It was truly a special place to grow up," he says.