Departures of note

Louis Schweitzer, a Russian-born paper industrialist, purchased the New York radio station WBAI in 1957 for $34,000. He ran it as a personal artistic endeavor, broadcasting what he considered the latest in music, politics, and ideas. As the station gained commercial success, Schweitzer grew disillusioned with commercial radio. After reading about KPFA and Pacifica Radio in Los Angeles, he decided to donate WBAI—then valued at around $200,000—to the Pacifica Foundation in January 1960, making it the network's third station.

Schweitzer's philanthropy extended beyond radio. He donated 1% of his annual income to the United Nations and once bought a barber shop on behalf of the barber who had previously rented the premises, with the only condition being a free haircut after regular business hours upon request. In 1961, he founded the Vera Institute of Justice with Herb Sturz as its founding director. Their first project, the Manhattan Bail Project, was an experimental pretrial services program that used controlled research methods in Manhattan courts. When these experiments led the federal government to rewrite bail laws in 1966, President Lyndon Johnson credited Schweitzer for the initiative.

Schweitzer also proposed a 'juvenile disarmament' resolution to the UN, suggesting that toy guns and water pistols be prohibited as a first step toward effective disarmament. When critics dismissed the idea as naive, he responded, 'The naive should inherit the earth because the realists have done such a lousy job.' In 1931, he married actress Lucille Lortel, and in 1955 he bought her the Theater de Lys as an anniversary present.

Schweitzer died of a heart attack on September 20, 1971, aboard the ocean liner SS France while returning from Europe.