J. I. Rodale
| Jerome Irving Rodale | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Jerome Irving Cohen August 16, 1898 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Died | June 8, 1971 (aged 72) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Heart attack |
| Known for | Organic gardening |
| Spouse(s) | Anna Andrews (m. 1927) |
| Children | Robert David Rodale (1930–1990) |
Jerome Irving Rodale [surname accented on second syllable] (August 16, 1898 – June 8, 1971), was a publisher, editor, author, playwright and a founder of Rodale, Inc., who inadvertently earned a place in network television history by dying on-camera while guesting on a never-aired edition of The Dick Cavett Show,
Rodale was an early advocate of returning to sustainable agriculture and organic farming in the United States. Rodale founded a publishing empire which included several magazines, and published many books—his own and those of others—on health. He also published works on a wide variety of other topics, including The Synonym Finder. Rodale popularized the term "organic" to mean grown without pesticides.
Rodale was born in New York City on August 16, 1898, the son of a grocer, and raised on the Lower East Side. His birth name was Cohen but, presuming it would be a handicap in business, he changed it to a non-Jewish-sounding one. He worked as an accountant for New York City 1917-1920, and worked for the Internal Revenue Service 1920-21. He and his brother Joseph co-founded Rodale Manufacturing, a maker of electrical equipment, in New York in 1923. He married Anna Andrews in 1927 and had three children: Robert Rodale (1930–1990), Nina Rodale (who married Robert Hale Horstman and then married Arthur Houghton), and Ruth Rodale. Rodale was already concerned with his health at this time, as he had frequent heart murmurs and had been rejected from the Army in World War I for bad eyesight. To improve his health, he read the works of Bernarr Macfadden and invented an exercising device.
The Rodale brothers moved Rodale Manufacturing to Emmaus, Pennsylvania in 1930 to cut costs during the depression. He founded Rodale Press in 1930, marketing books and magazines. Inspired by his encounter with the ideas of Albert Howard, Rodale developed an interest in promoting a healthy and active lifestyle that emphasized organically-grown foods, and established the Rodale Organic Gardening Experimental Farm in 1940. Rodale Press started publishing Organic Farming and Gardening magazine in 1942. Organic Farming and Gardening promotes organic horticulture; later the magazine was retitled Organic Gardening. To Rodale, agriculture and health were inseparable. Healthy soil required compost and eschewing pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. Eating plants grown in such soil would then help humans stay healthier, he expounded.
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