Dennis L. Stern

Lyme, NH - Dennis L. Stern, who held senior positions in the newsroom and business operations of the New York Times during a 28-year career there, died on Feb. 24 at his home in Lyme, NH. The cause of death was prostate cancer. He was 79 years old.

After taking a one-semester journalism course in his junior year of high school in Whitefish Bay, Wis, Dennis knew he wanted a newspaper career. In his senior year, he was co-editor of the school newspaper and a freelance reporter covering high school sports for the local weekly paper. He took the job seriously and turned out detailed and colorful articles for which he got paid “by the inch.”

Dennis began working at the New York Times in 1981, as an editor on the metropolitan desk and later held positions on the national desk and Sunday business. In the early 1990s, he was promoted to head of newsroom administration and was involved in preparing for the launch of the Time’s on-line newspaper.

In 1997, he was recruited from the newsroom to the management side of the paper to head human resources. Later he was named senior vice president and deputy general manager, a role that focused on re-orienting the budget to enable investing more in the digital operations, which proved crucial to the paper’s future.

Dennis had an undergraduate degree from Haverford College and a law degree from New York University (NYU). At Haverford, he was editor of the student newspaper for three semesters.

While in law school Dennis worked part-time covering New York City for the Associated Press. After graduation, he worked at newspapers in Miami and Washington, DC, before going to The Times. He retired from The Times in 2009, and he and his wife, Barbara, moved to Lyme, NH, a town they had discovered when visiting their sons at Camp Moosilauke in Orford, NH. Not quite fulfilled by retirement, he took a position as vice president for administration at Vermont Law School, a job he held until 2014.

After retiring again, he joined Osher, Dartmouth’s life-long learning program, and began teaching classes on news literacy and American humor.

Dennis had an outgoing personality and loved getting to know people, whether it was colleagues from work, his children’s friends or vendors at the Norwich Farmers Market which he frequented with gusto.

Hiking with his family and friends in the Upper Valley and White Mountains was a favorite pastime. It was no surprise when he was asked to be a board member of the Upper Valley Trails Alliance, a position he held for seven years. With his family, Dennis also spent many weekend hours in the woods on their 70-acre property in Lyme carving out trails that eventually stretched three miles and offered a variety of terrain for hiking and biking. He and Barbara also took many Country Walkers hiking trips to national parks in the West and to Great Britain, Ireland, France and Italy.

Another favorite family pastime was renting a party boat at least once a summer to cruise up and down the Connecticut River, dropping anchor to swim and have supper and giving each grandchild a turn to “drive” the boat.

Besides his wife, he is survived by three sons and their families: Sam and his wife Chrissy Cicon of Cambridge, MA, Phil and his wife Dana White, of Littleton, CO, and George and his wife Pam of Snowmass Village, CO, and six grandchildren, Delilah, Claire, Everett, Sawyer, Palmer and Pema Stern.

The family plans to hold a private memorial service later in the year.

Knight Funeral Home, White River Jct., VT has been entrusted by Dennis’ family and online memories may be shared in an online guestbook at www.knightfuneralhomes.com