John J. Karol

My father grew up in Portland, Oregon, traveling east to attend Harvard College. Posted below are some "snapshots" of my father's life following graduation in 1927. He majored in chemistry, training for a career in medical research. During his senior year he also worked as a house-to-house interviewer for Archibald Crossley, a pioneer in market research. My father earned 75 cents for each completed interview in his territory of Lynn, Massachusetts. Crossley liked the results and asked my father to represent the Crossley firm in Boston — this time interviewing doctors at one dollar an interview.

At the same time, his Harvard grades brought him a Carnegie Fellowship to do graduate medical research at the University of California. So he hired a man to take his place as Crossley's Boston manager and set out for the West Coast in the summer of 1927 — with a piebald mouse in his pocket. The mouse was part of the field work he would be doing in genetics with "American Naturalist" Francis B. Sumner. Dr. Sumner was based at the University of California's Scripps Institution for Biological Research — as it then was called.

Upon arrival at La Jolla, my father camped on the beach with a tall Scripps colleague from Scotland who, when my father noticed ants in the sugar reserved for their tea, simply observed, "Ahh, but they're very wee ants." Before long Dr. Sumner and my father headed off to the dunes of western Florida to trap Peromyscus (aka "deer mice") for study and research. My father's work with Sumner ultimately led to a Masters Degree in Zoology from the University of California in 1928.

My father had arranged to enter medical school at Columbia University in the fall of 1929, planning to earn a degree in medicine and a doctorate in physiology. In the interim, in order to raise funds for tuition, he accepted an offer from Archibald Crossley to work for one year as manager of his research firm in New York and prepare a first-ever study and report on network radio transmission and marketing potential. Not incidentally, my mother who graduated from Oberlin College in 1927 was then serving as Crossley's secretary and assistant in his New York office.

After finishing his one year of service with Crossley Incorporated, my father chose to stay on as manager of the New York office. The report he completed in 1930, The Advertiser Looks at Radio, attracted widespread attention and "caught the eye of every radio man in the country." One of those was William S. Paley who, in September 1928 at age 26, had purchased controlling interest in the struggling United Independent Broadcasters and set out to build his own empire, The Columbia Broadcasting System.

The result — on January 1, 1931 my father became CBS's first Director of Market Research, moving to its new offices at 485 Madison Avenue. He remained with CBS until retiring in 1969 as the CBS Television Network's Vice President and Director of Special Projects. Following eleven years of retirement, my father died instantly of a heart attack in January 1980 at the age of seventy-five. He was at home, preparing to head off for his daily horseback ride.

(Click on each image to enlarge. "Back" to return to next.)

Twenty-fifth reunion — 1952.

John Karol while at Harvard, c. 1927.

Source of my father's piebald companion while traveling from Cambridge to California to collaborate with Dr. Francis B. Sumner in genetics research (as explained above).

The Scripps Institution in La Jolla during the 1920s.

John Karol in Panama City, Florida — fall 1927.

Dr. Francis B. Sumner in Panama City, Florida — fall 1927.

Dr. Sumner setting traps for Peromyscus (aka "deer mice") in the dunes of western Florida — fall 1927.

My father carrying the traps.

First page of my father's thesis leading to a Masters Degree in Zoology from the University of California in 1928. (Full text available upon request — none to date.)

While conducting research on network radio transmission and market potential for Archibald Crossley from late 1928 to December 1930.

The move to CBS in January 1931.

My father's position at CBS at the time of his retirement in 1969.

My parents at my father's 1969 retirement party held at "21" in New York.

Presenting my father with a folio of more than 250 letters of appreciation from CBS colleagues, clients and business associates.

The folio of letters, presented to my father with an accompanying album of photographs, a few of which appear below.

From Chairman of the Board, William S. Paley.

From CBS colleague, Frank M. Smith, Jr.

From the photo album presented to my father. Early days at CBS: William Paley (top), John Karol (below).

News story two and a half months after joining CBS.

News story from November 1931.

Recognition.

The CBS Radio evening line-up for fall 1952.

Annual Dinner Meeting of Radio Pioneers in 1955.

Citations for Special Achievement.

A sponsor for Jack Benny's radio program in 1957 — in spite of the constant advance of television.

With Jack Benny (to my father's right).

Collaborating with CBS News people on special projects (Edward R. Morrow to my father's right).

The lighter side of broadcasting — with (a young) Frank Sinatra.

The lighter side of broadcasting — with Hoagy Carmichael (far right).

An equestrian by marriage (as my father put it).

Weekend diversion. Driving at the 1961 Sleepy Hollow Horse show — Mother alongside, my sister Kitty and her daughter Abby behind.

Kathryn H. Ross

My sister Kitty died of organ failure in November 2004 at the age of seventy-three. Posted below are comments I delivered at her memorial service in New York, and a few photographs of the childhood we shared growing up in Chappaqua, New York and Edgartown, Massachusetts.

The house in Chappaqua where we grew up. The house was sold in 1991 when Mother moved to Kendal in Hanover, New Hampshire.

Kitty and Johnny at home in Chappaqua, c.1941.

Sunset Camp on Edgartown's Trapp's Pond — Summer 1938.

The house was owned by Prof. Marcus Jernegan and his sister Laura Jernegan Spear, ancestral relatives who had houses nearby. There was a stuffed deer's head (that we called "Oscar") above our fireplace, and leaks in the roof. Whenever it rained, water ran down Oscar's nose and dripped from his lips. I used to laugh, saying Oscar was spitting. Mary Taylor, our maid/nanny who came with us to the Vineyard in those early years, would invoke Jesus each morning as she bent her ample frame over the kerosine stove trying to light its circular wicks. On Sunday evenings we would take Mary to the "colored" church in Oak Bluffs — sometimes returning early to pick her up in order to enjoy the final celebrations and meet some of her friends.

The family at Sunset Camp — Summer 1939. Kitty and Mother at work. Daddy reading on the porch.

Rowing lesson on Trapp's Pond — Summer 1939.

Taking Kitty for a ride on Trapp's Pond with my outboard motor — Summer 1939.

(Circling my index finger around the bottom of the pan simulated the exposed spinning flywheel used to start the outboard motors of that time.)

Kitty and Johnny on our front porch in Chappaqua. Kitty sitting on the front step, Johnny reading from the porch bench. Sketch by house guest Peggie Kruger — May 24, 1942.

Kitty at riding camp in New Hampshire — Summer 1942.