Sidney Rutberg, the highly respected and longtime financial editor and columnist for Fairchild Publications, died in Sarasota, Fla., on March 25. He passed away from Alzheimer’s disease at Arden Courts of Sarasota, the long-term facility where he had been living, according to his wife, Marcia Rutberg. He was 101 years old.
Rutberg was born in Brooklyn in 1924 and was drafted into the Army in 1943 where he studied engineering at Kansas State College under the Army Specialized Training Program. In 1944, the War Department dissolved the ASTP and Rutberg was transferred to the 97th Infantry division where he was trained in demolitions. He was sent to Europe for the final assault on Nazi Germany and the cleanup for the Battle of the Bulge. His knowledge of Yiddish enabled him to be a translator for those captured.
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After serving in France, Germany and Czechoslovakia until the end of the war, he served in the Occupation Army in Japan in 1946 where he began writing for the Army newspaper, a skill that sparked his lifelong interest in journalism.
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Following his service, the GI Bill allowed him to attend Brooklyn College where he graduated with a BA in economics and political science and an MA from Bernard Baruch School of Business and CCNY.
Rutberg joined Fairchild Publications in 1949 as a buyers arrival reporter and worked his way up to both financial editor and a columnist where he penned both “The Street” and “Hey Dad” for Fairchild’s flagship publication, Women’s Wear Daily.
Rutberg was also a published author and his first book, “Ten Cents on the Dollar,” was a humorous take on bankruptcy. The book was popular enough for Simon & Schuster to send him on a national book tour and the proceeds enabled his son Allen to attend Harvard.
He then wrote “The Money Balloon,” a story on inflation dating from the ancient Romans to the 1970s, as well as “The Joy of Expense Account Living,” and Playboy’s “Investment and Financial Planning Guide for Singles.”
Along with six other editors including Mort Sheinman and Marvin Klapper, Rutberg wrote “Fashion Retailing and a Bygone Era, Inside Women’s Wear Daily.”
In 1977, the Japan Trade Center sponsored Rutberg as well as other high-profile journalists to travel to Japan for two weeks where they met with that country’s leaders to help improve understanding between the two countries and improve international trade.
During his tenure at WWD, Rutberg was president of the New York Financial Writers and he was also an eager participant in the Financial Follies, an annual event held in New York City where he danced and sang to help raise money for journalism scholarships.
After nearly 50 years at Fairchild, Rutberg retired and became a freelance writer for The Secured Lender. He continued writing books, including “Asset Based Lending.”
Rutberg married his first wife, Adele, in 1948 but an accident took her life after nearly 40 years together. He met his second wife at a bar mitzvah and they married a year later. Their marriage lasted 35 years until his death.
He enjoyed golf, traveling, reading and spending time with his family. Although Alzheimer’s disease impaired his capabilities at the end of his life, Rutberg remained loving and funny with a ready smile until his final days.
Ed Nardoza, the former editor in chief of WWD, said Rutberg was “considered the Dean of Financial Editors in New York City for decades. He trained generations of journalists on how to understand finance, earnings, balance sheets, etc. His best advice to young financial reporters was: ‘Don’t believe the bullshit. Just look at the numbers and the story is there.’”
Nardoza also pointed to his WWD column, “Hey Dad,” that “brought complex financial situations and information to an understandable, accessible level for all readers.” Rutberg’s book, “Ten Cents on the Dollar,” is “a classic on bankrupty,” Nardoza added. “He broke every major industry IPO story and had definitive coverage on every M&A deal and major bankruptcy. And there were plenty of those. He was a great journalist and a great teacher and had a hilarious sense of humor.”
Arthur Zaczkiewicz, executive editor of strategic content development for WWD and the Fairchild Media Group, said: “Sid was one of a kind. His understanding of the business and financial side of retail and fashion apparel was unmatched. Aside from traditional financial reporting, his own reporting in the early 1990s also included deep dives into court filings involving major retailers and fashion brands. His sources in the investment and banking community were unmatched and positioned WWD ahead of publications such as the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, reiterating the importance of WWD as the fashion industry bible. Even in retirement, Sid kept a close eye on the work of the financial news desk, offering insights and suggestions that made the team excel. He will be sorely missed not only by the financial news team, but me personally.”
David Orgel, who had worked with Rutberg at Fairchild News Service and now has his own consulting business, said: “Sid had the unique gift of not only understanding complex and often dry business information, but also being able to explain it to fashion industry readers in gripping ways. He brought elements of the novelist and humorist to his journalism and books — putting together his pieces on a manual typewriter in the days before word processing computers and the Internet. And he was the same way in person — always charismatic and engaging.”
Rich Wilner, who worked under Rutberg as a financial reporter for a decade, said: “Sid was a giant in the financial journalism game, breaking more stories than any other reporter. His sources throughout Wall Street and the business community were nothing short of amazing. Also, his ‘Hey Dad’ columns not only explained in plain English the financial shenanigans perpetrated by the so-called C-suite wizards, but poked fun at the nonsensical jargon and made-up terminology companies used to explain away bad quarterly results. But more than being just a first-class journalist, Sid was a master teacher of young reporters. His reporters went on to lead top-tier financial newsrooms around the country. Through these ‘graduates,’ Sid’s spirit, generosity and talents live on. I will miss his insight, his bravery in supporting his reporters against relentless pushback from CEOs, and his friendship — not to mention that incredible laugh.”
Vicki Young, now executive business reporter for Footwear News who also worked with Rutberg, noted: “Sid had that rare talent of being able to distill financial information into plain English, and that’s not always easy to do. For those of us who worked under him, Sid taught us a lot by example on how to be better at our jobs, whether that’s analyzing a financial report or someone’s quote when trying to separate corporate spin from reality. I was sad when he decided to retire, because that meant future Fairchild journalists coming up the ranks would no longer be beneficiaries of his knowledge and expertise. More importantly, he was also a good, decent human being and everyone’s friend.”
Rutberg is survived by his wife and son as well as several nieces and nephews, stepchildren, step grandchildren and step great-grandchildren.
Memorial services will be held at the National Cemetery of Sarasota on Thursday at 11:30 a.m. Contributions can be made to All Faiths Food Bank, the Jewish Family & Children’s Services or any charity in Rutberg’s name.