Ubell, Earl 1926-2007

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Ubell, Earl 1926-2007

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born June 21, 1926, in New York, NY; died of Parkinson's disease, May 30, 2007, in Englewood, NJ. Journalist and author. Ubell was an award-winning science journalist and editor who also wrote books that made complicated subjects more understandable to the general reader. Raised in a Yiddish-speaking home, he did not become fluent in English until he attended public school. Becoming editor of his high school newspaper, he later embarked on a journalism career at the New York Herald Tribune. He worked there as a secretary, and, after serving in the U.S. Navy in the later days of World War II, returned to the paper as a reporter. Ubell studied physics at what is now the City College of the City University of New York, completing a B.S. in 1948. He was subsequently named science editor at the Herald Tribune in 1953. During this period, he famously reported on the Soviet Union's launching of the Sputnik satellite in 1957; he happened to be attending a conference at the Soviet embassy at the time, which gave him easy access to many good interviews. He also would conduct interviews with such scientists as Albert Einstein and wrote feature pieces about the polio vaccine and the discovery of the structure of DNA. Also in 1957, Ubell won the Albert and Mary Lasker Medical Journalism Award for a series he wrote about heart attacks. In 1960, he earned the American Association for the Advancement of Science-Westinghouse Science Writing Award for an article he wrote explaining steady-state theory, which concerns the origin and evolution of the universe. Moving into broadcasting, from 1966 to 1972 he was health and science editor at WCBS-TV in New York City and, from 1972 to 1976, a director at WNBC-TV. Ubell was not merely a reporter of science, he was actively involved in its practice. Over the years, he conducted laboratory work at the California Institute of Technology, Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science, and the Jackson Laboratory in Maine. A former president of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing, he was considered an authority on the complex subject of X-ray crystallography. During the 1970s, Ubell spent time producing television programs on a variety of subjects, winning a local Emmy Award in 1970 for his work. Returning to WCBS in 1978 to resume work as science editor, Ubell remained there until he retired in 1995. He was also health editor for Parade magazine from 1983 to 1997. Ubell's decision to retire was prompted by his Parkinson's disease. He wrote about his fight with Parkinson's as one of his last stories. Acclaimed for his skill in making scientific topics interesting and comprehensible for the lay reader, Ubell brought this ability to his books for children, including The World of Living (1965) and The World of Candle and Color (1969), as well as for adults. His books for older readers include How to Save Your Life (1973) and Parade Family Health Companion: A Reassuring Guide to Dealing with Life's Day-to-Day Health Issues (1997), which was written with Randi Londer. The cofounder, with his wife, and chair of the Center for Modern Dance Education in Hackensack, New Jersey, Ubell won many more awards in appreciation for his contributions. Among these are the Samuelson Award from the New York League for Hard of Hearing, an award from the Milton Helpern Library of Legal Medicine, the 1982 Special Achievement award from the Deadline Club, the 1985 National Media award from the American Diabetes Association, the 1987 New York State Mental Health Council award, and the 1990 Annual Service award from the Dance Notation Bureau.