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People
September 15-30, 2004 Edition PEOPLE Scientific American Publisher Piel Dies at Age 89
NEW YORK, NY/09/08/04Gerard Piel, former publisher of Scientific American magazine , died September 5 at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Queens at the age of 89.
Piel died of complications from a stroke, according to his family. He bought the magazine in 1947 with several colleagues, and introduced many innovative ideas, including having scientists themselves write articles about their research. When he retired as chairman in 1984, the magazine had grown to a circulation of more than one million. In 1986, the magazine was acquired by Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtbrinck, which also owns St. Martin’s Press.
He served as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and as a board member of the American Museum of Natural History and the New York Botanical Garden.
Piel, a Harvard University graduate, began his publishing career as an apprentice at Time Inc. Later, he served as science editor of Life magazine. He was also the author of several books.
