R.I.P. Philip Ressner, 83, ("Dudley Pippin")

Seems to me that title was on "Free to Be.....You & Me."

Lenona.



January 17, 2006
Philip Ressner, 83, Children's Author and Book Editor, Dies
By WOLFGANG SAXON NY Times


Philip Ressner, a retired book editor and the author of half
a dozen successful children's books, died on Dec. 27 at
Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn. He was 83.

The cause was heart failure, his family said.

Mr. Ressner worked as a subway motorman before he broke into
editing. In 1965 he published the first of his books for
very young readers, "August Explains" (Harper & Row), the
tale of a wise old bear who is very good at magic.

Writing as Phil Ressner, he followed that up with "Dudley
Pippin" (Harper, 1965), about a boy's exploration of city
delights. Other titles were "At Night" (Dutton, 1967),
"Jerome" (Parent's Magazine Press, 1967), "The Park in the
City" (Dutton, 1971) and "Dudley Pippin's Summer" (Harper,
1979). He also wrote short stories.

Philip Ressner was born in Brooklyn on Oct. 29, 1922, and
attended Brooklyn College and the University of Wyoming
before serving with the Army in Europe in World War II. He
worked as a motorman for the New York City Transit Authority
for four years while studying at New York University, from
which he graduated in 1956.

He joined the staff of Harper & Row Publishers in 1959 as an
assistant editor, and later worked at Harcourt Brace and at
Scientific American.

Mr. Ressner is survived by a son, Simon, of Brooklyn; two
daughters, Alice Joan Ressner of Brooklyn and Anabel R.
Ressner of Beacon, N.Y.; a brother, Bernard J. Ressner of
Edison, N.J.; and two granddaughters.

When he left Scientific American in the mid-1980's, Mr.
Ressner revisited his early railroading days by joining the
Metro-North staff of the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority as writer-editor of Mileposts, a monthly
newsletter for Metro-North commuters. He retired again in
1997.

For those who don't know, "Free to Be....You and Me" was a radical (for
its time) children's record from the early 1970s. It was about not
needing to stick to traditional gender roles. (I didn't enjoy every
part of the album* - and I remember one or two girls at school saying
they didn't like the song "It's All Right to Cry," - but much of it was
very funny and clever, especially "Boy Meets Girl" - about two babies
in a hospital - and the nasty "Ladies First.") There are 181 reviews
at you-know-where.

Other lyricists/composers for that album: Sheldon Harnick ("Fiddler on
the Roof"), Mary Rodgers ("Freaky Friday," "Once Upon a Mattress"), and

Shel Silverstein. Narrators included Mel Brooks, Marlo Thomas, Carol
Channing and, of course, Alan Alda.

Oh, and Diana Ross sings "When We Grow Up"!

Lenona.

*For example, is it really such a good idea (in "Housework") to make
housework sound automatically not-fun unless people do it together? Not
the best way to get boys to do their share without whining.