August 1, 2008
Dear Family, Friends and Colleagues,
We're writing to let you know that our father/ex-husband Martin Gradel died this afternoon at St. Luke's/Roosevelt Hospital in New York City. He was only 57 years old, but succumbed to an infection that he contracted after surviving a fairly harrowing bout of internal bleeding three weeks before. Marty had beaten that illness back and had just gotten out of the hospital on July 25, only to be readmitted on the night of July 30. The really great news, however, was that those five days at his home on the Upper West Side of New York were supremely happy ones for him. He felt he was on the road to recovery, he had his family and friends around him both during and after the hospital stay, his Yankees were back in the saddle in the American League East and he was making plans for a trip to Paris with Mary Jo. He most especially had just enjoyed a wonderful weekend with his beloved son Tom and Tom's girlfriend Annie Lewallen -- and his best friend Jay Smith -- that featured a dinner the three of them made for him and served on his terrace under the summer stars.
You all know what a special guy Marty was -- picture him in the hospital pouring on the charm for that tough breed of nurses that only exist in New York hospitals -- but we thought we'd remind you just a little bit about his career and assorted passions. And we hope you will check in with us so we can tell you about our yet-to-be determined plans for services, perhaps both in his hometown of Philadelphia and his adopted city of New York, and bless us with your favorite Marty story.
Although Marty was most proud of his long career with the New York Times, where he was deputy news editor, he made sure that family, friends and colleagues knew that another hallmark of his newspaper career was that he "had the same job as James Mitchner," serving as sport editor of the Doylestown (PA) Intelligencer where he began as a full-time journalist in 1973. He got a real kick out of the fact that he followed in Michener's footsteps, albeit several years later!
In 1975, Marty then went to the News-Journal in Wilmington, where he was assistant sport editor. It was there that he met Mary Jo, who then was a business reporter at the same newspaper. They married in 1978, the same year that Marty was hired by the Philadelphia Inquirer as an assistant sport editor. Marty, who was born in Philadelphia on March 24, 1951, was proud to work for one of his hometown newspapers (he actually had also worked after school and in the summertime at the former Philadelphia Bulletin while attending Father Judge High School in Northeast Philadelphia) but was particularly proud that he had worked under the legendary Inquirer executive editor Gene Roberts. Marty, who eventually became deputy news editor of the Inquirer, was part of the extraordinary bench of young journalists that Roberts assembled during the years in which the Inquirer compiled a unique record of winning a total of 17 Pulitzer Prizes over 18 years for a wide-ranging body of work. Marty's association with Gene later extended to the New York Times, during Roberts' second stint at the newspaper when he served as managing editor in the mid 1990s. Marty came to the Times under Gene and eventually worked his way up to become deputy news editor.
Marty and Mary Jo were blessed with a special friendship with Gene, who made sure that they had a place to recuperate after Marty lost his left eye in a horrible home remodeling accident in the late 70s by insisting they spend a week at his vacation home in North Carolina. Part of the conceit of Gene's wonderful generosity revealed itself the first day they were there when a neighbor, who was a high-level executive at a nuclear power company, came swimming over to Gene's dock that evening to introduce himself and then said, "Hey, I heard you lost an eye. Well, so did I and it hasn't slowed me down a bit!"
In 1985, Marty became news editor of the San Jose (CA) Mercury News and then also worked in the early 90s on the news desk of the former Dallas Times-Herald, in the years just prior to the newspaper's closing.
At all these great papers, Marty gained a reputation as an superb word editor and a steady hand on the news desk, one who was equally adept at bringing together all the painstaking details of a newspaper on deadline, while also refusing to settle for less than the best.
Like many newspaper journalists, Marty was also something of a Renaissance man. He had deep and wide knowledge of the sports scene -- in keeping with his many years as a sport editor -- but was especially a fan of baseball, a sport that he excelled at in high school and had received an athletic scholarship to play at LaSalle University in Philadelphia. His deep love of the sport was activated every spring when -- over a 10-year period -- he annually took Tom to spring training and submerged his support of the Yankees to his son's growing fanaticism for the Boston Red Sox by making the Bosox' City of Palms Park their home base during the trips.
Marty also was a history buff, an amateur real estate mogul -- whose many moves across country allowed him to renovate six different homes -- and a true lover of art and artists. Marty's apartment on the Upper West Side was a showcase for the large collection of original paintings he had started assembling in the late 70s after he studied under the legendary director of education Violette DeMazia of the Barnes Foundation in Upper Merion, PA.
But of his numerous interests and significant newspaper career, Marty always said his greatest accomplishment was his son Tom, who was born in 1983 and now serves as an aide to Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts.
Marty was part of a large family -- one of 13 children of Joseph and Rose Gradel -- and grew up in Northeast Philadelphia. Just within the last two months, Marty had returned to Philadelphia to deliver a eulogy for this father, Joe, who had worked for decades at Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. as a newsroom librarian. Marty also recently toured the home he and Mary Jo had bought as newlyweds -- on 26th Street in the Fairmount section of Philadelphia. It was their first home, the one that they had renovated together under Marty's design direction and incredible sweat equity, and the home to which they brought their only child, Thomas Joseph Gradel, when he was born in December 1983. That house is currently for sale and Marty was thinking of buying it for the second time. That won't be the case now, but we hope that whoever ends up there feels the wonderful vibes that it held for us.
Thanks for being there for Marty over the years. Let us hear from you.
Fond regards,
Tom Gradel and Mary Jo Meisner