Bender, former NY Times biz journalist, dies at 95

Marylin Bender, a former New York Times business reporter recruited to the section from fashion who later became Sunday business editor, died on Oct. 19 at the age of 95, reports Katharine Seelye of The Times.

Seelye writes, “She was then recruited by The Times’s business news section, where the editors thought her ability to write about a subject through the personalities involved would enliven their otherwise dry pages.

“Having earned a law degree and married a financial consultant to the aviation industry, Ms. Bender said, she felt confident in writing about businesspeople. During the oral history interview, conducted in 2000 and 2001 for Columbia Law School, she was asked about her approach to someone like Jack Welch, the heralded chief executive of General Electric who died in March.

“‘From a business standpoint, of course you’d want to know how he runs his business,’ she said. ‘But the rest of him? It’s hysterical, because he otherwise is not fascinating — unless you dig deeply into his ordinariness.’

“Among her subjects was a 37-year-old Donald J. Trump. In a Sunday business section cover story in 1983 under the headline ‘The Empire and Ego of Donald Trump,’ she examined his wheeling and dealing as he expanded his real estate empire across Manhattan.”

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