Tom Bodkin, c. 1985
For 46 years, Tom Bodkin has been the heart and soul of design at The New York Times. His job titles have included Art Director, Designer, Design Director, Creative Director, Chief Creative Officer, Associate Managing Editor and Deputy Managing Editor—only the second time an art department head has ever been listed on the prestigious Times masthead. Bodkin served under more executive editors than I can count … a feat in itself.
“Tom Bodkin plays an essential role as our art and design guru and is one of my most valued and trusted masthead advisers,” [former Executive Editor] Jill Abramson wrote in an e-mail to staff when Bodkin was named Deputy Managing Editor for design in 2011. “He is central to all of our future efforts in digital and print and to the integration of our work.”
At the 2011 National Design Awards ceremony
Bodkin’s life isn’t all wrapped up in newspaper design, as The Daily Heller reported back in 2011, but the institution in all its forms has consumed at least half of his waking (and dreaming) life (whereas the other half has been consumed by fixing motorcycles and cars, driving tractors, refurbishing antique machines like player pianos, movie cameras, rebuilding a real airplane …). He’s been my friend for at least 44 of those 46 years at the paper. Now, with his leaving, I feel the circle has closed. He was my life support—and last link—to the inner workings of the place I called home for 33 years.
Under his tutelage, the Times has incredibly changed. He’s tripled the size of the art department, altered its management structure and increased respect for design among the newsroom and its editors. Bodkin’s retirement leaves a void that will be impossible to fill for me, and hard for many others in his orbit of colleagues and peers.
Last Friday was his official final day as CCO. Yesterday, his friends and colleagues celebrated his accomplishments and leadership. Now it is time for him to be given a rightful place in the histories of graphic design and visual journalism. Bodkin has never sought the spotlight—his modesty is legendary—but he leaves a major legacy that he did not egotistically promote or advertise. He was simply doing his job … and did it extraordinarily well for 46 years.
Atop the mountain behind my house below, 1983
At my wedding, 1983