In Memoriam: Ivan L. Weinstock, 1930-2006
He was a friend to many, a mentor, and a member of our family.
Ivan L. Weinstock,
consultant to the publisher of Occupational
Health & Safety and a leader in the publishing sector of the safety
industry for more than 40 years, died Dec. 12, 2006, in Cleveland, Ohio.
Services were held Dec. 15 at Berkowitz-Kumin Bookatz Memorial Chapel in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.
Weinstock
formerly was publisher of Penton Publishing Co.'s Occupational Hazards magazine. Among many professional honors he received,
he was the first Honorary Member inducted into the National Industrial Glove
Distributors Association's--now the International Glove Association's--Hall of
Fame, in 1991, and was inducted into the American Advertising Federation Fifth
District's Hall of Fame in 2002.
"I
was with him in September [2006] at The Motivation Show in Chicago. Every person who ever met Ivan
always remembered him. They did. And he remembered them. He had the best memory,"
said Publisher Susan Stilwill, who noted
she and Weinstock joined Occupational
Health & Safety during the same week in May 1998. "In his first
year with OH&S, Ivan and the team
drove the magazine into the number one book in the marketplace in
market share and pages, where it has remained for more than eight years.
"He was great
with ideas," she added. "He had more energy than anyone I've ever met
and just could run us ragged. He's the person who came up with the idea of the Safety
Marketing Group and Safety Equipment Distributors Association special sections and
developed the incentive business for us, including a special section with the
Incentive Gift Card Council. And this year, for the first time, we'll be working
with the International Glove Association in February; he's their hall of famer.
And the AAOHN Show Guide, which we're working on for April.
"He was
one of a kind," Stilwill said. "When you asked him for his ideas on
something, he'd write you five pages
of ideas.
"Ivan
was a friend to many, a mentor, and finally a member of our family. His
positive attitude and laughter were contagious. Ivan never forgot a name or
person, and no one will ever forget Ivan. His spirit touched and will live on
in so many of us."
"He was
a tireless advocate for safety and health, and a friend to many people in the
safety business," Dan Shipp, president of International Safety Equipment
Association, said in a message to members.
"Ivan
was always a very smart and warm and engaging person who was certainly a friend
to the incentive market, as well as the safety market," said Karen Renk,
executive director of the Incentive Marketing Association. She said he gained
the incentive industry's trust by working diligently for the benefit of all
concerned. "Whenever he would approach me with an idea, it was always,
'Karen, do you think this would be beneficial to your people?' That was a
really refreshing way to do business," she said.
George
Hayward, a good friend who is president of United Sales Associates in Cincinnati, said
Weinstock was "a tremendous giant, I think, not only professionally but as
a person. He walked with that surrounding him. He didn't look like a giant, but
he was one." Hayward
recalled how Weinstock had stepped forward before anyone else to help SEMAA,
the Safety Equipment Manufacturers' Agents Association, succeed in its early
days, and how he'd volunteered wholeheartedly, contributing speeches, articles,
and one-on-one advocacy on SEMAA's behalf.
Once, during
a NIGDA conference, the keynote speaker suffered a broken leg on the eve of his
two-hour speech and couldn't attend. The association's leaders were stumped for
a stand-in. Hayward
suggested they ask for help from Weinstock, who was already present at the
conference, and he agreed. "I've had several people [recall the speech]
since I sent out an e-mail on Ivan's passing," Hayward said. "He had no notes. It may
not have been two hours, but it may have been. It was not self-serving. I
remember how saved we were and that it was one of the best speeches or talks we
ever had."
The
Weinstocks, Ivan and Sheila, would light up the room at every meeting they
attended, Hayward
said. He said Weinstock respected his competitors and was "a specialist as
a generalist" who knew the history of every company in the business and
cared about the lives and circumstances of everyone he encountered. Those
qualities made him a peerless salesman.
"If you
were in competition with Ivan, you might as well forget it," Hayward said.
"There's an example of one relationship that you couldn't beat."
Weinstock had
begun his career as a production manager/associate editor for Industrial
Publishing Company in 1955. The company later merged with Penton Publishing. He
was named publisher of Occupational Hazards
in 1963 and publisher of Government
Product News in 1970. In 1984, he added the same title for Foundry Management and Technology. In
1989, Weinstock was promoted to Group Vice President of the Service Industry
Group at Penton, with responsibility for Contracting
Business, The Foodservice Distributor,
Government Product News, Heating/Piping/Air Conditioning, Lodging Hospitality, Managing Office Technology, Occupational Hazards, Restaurant Hospitality, and School & College. He became
president of that group in January 1991.
Weinstock was
a member many business organizations, including Sales & Marketing
Executives (former president); Business/Professional Advertising Association;
Cleveland Advertising Association (former Board Member and President); and the
National Fire Protection Association. He received ISEA's Distinguished Service
Award in November 1990 and was appointed to the board of directors of the
Safety Equipment Institute in December 1991. He is an Honorary Lifetime Member
of SEMAA and, in 1997, was the third person to be named an Honorary Member of
the Safety Equipment Distributors Association. He served on the past presidents'
council of the Cleveland Advertising Association.
His wife,
Sheila, resides in Shaker Heights,
Ohio. They have three children,
Elizabeth, Lee, and Matthew, and two grandchildren, Frank and Lillian.
Weinstock was a graduate of Ohio University in Athens,
Ohio, and served in the U.S. Air
Force with the rank of first lieutenant.
This memorial appeared in the January 2007 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.
This article originally appeared in the January 2007 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.