Reproduced with permission from www.DutchTreatNY.com 2024
Bob Essman: ‘the real hero’ of the DTC Yearbook
– and ‘a tough act to follow’
By Jeremy Main
For more than 35 years, Bob Essman has been a hard-working, cheerful volunteer contributor to the Dutch Treat Club Yearbook and the Time Life Alumni Society Newsletter.
In 1988 Bob began designing and producing the DTC Yearbook. In his letter to readers that year, Ralph Graves, then President of the Club, wrote “the real hero of this book is Bob Essman, who designed it and put it together.”
Year after year, Bob designed and produced the handsome hard-backed volumes which, at that time, just before women were invited to join our ranks, had a distinctly raunchy character. Under Bob, the Yearbook became more dignified but remained classy. Recently, the book migrated here to the Club’s website.
In 2010, when Ralph asked me to take over his duties as DTC Yearbook editor, there was no question that Bob would continue as design director. At about the same time, Ralph also asked me to edit the Time Life Alumni Society newsletter, which had been started and edited for years by Gene Light. Having been a design director at Life, Bob was the obvious choice to tackle the newsletter. He accepted without question and we have worked together in harmony for more than a decade. Although the newsletter was a far more modest affair than the DTC Yearbook, Bob made sure that it was attractive and professional. He designed a handsome logo and had a great talent for finding the right photos to illustrate the articles.
Perhaps some professional backstory is in order. Bob came to Life in 1962 and spent most of his career there and at People, with a brief excursion to redesign Business Week. In those days Life made buckets of money and poured them into enterprises that in later years would have seemed obscenely lavish.
Bob has a particularly vivid memory of Life’s comprehensive coverage of Winston Churchill’s funeral in England in 1965. At the time, Bob was a junior art director. His chief challenge with this special assignment was a clash of deadlines. Churchill’s funeral was scheduled for a Saturday--but Life always closed on Friday, in order to get to its readers on Monday. Life's creative solution was to charter a DC-8 airplane, tear out the insides, and install a full sky-worthy photo lab and editorial office.
With Bob aboard, the plane landed at London’s Heathrow Airport on Saturday morning. The Life team raced off to a nearby hotel for a quick shower, a change of clothes, and lunch. Before they could eat dessert, they were called back to the plane. Relay teams of local motorcyclists—each of them “Beatle-haired and leather-clad,” recalls Bob—began delivering a total of 100 rolls of film to the plane from the 17 photographers whom Life had stationed along the funeral route.
Once the jet took off again and reached cruising altitude, the Life team went to work developing the film, with the editors putting words together. When the plane finally touched down at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, Bob was kneeling on the floor of the cabin, steadying himself against a table, and making the final cover copy fit. Managing editor George Hunt, Bob and a couple of others were pre-cleared for customs and jumped into a waiting limousine. They raced to the R. R. Donnelly printing plant with police sirens clearing the way.
The magazine did get to readers on Monday, but only because a certain 28-year-old layout genius named Bob Essman had personally put in a 36-hour day—with his breakfast in New York, his lunch in London, and a celebratory, post-work supper in Chicago.
Over his many years at Life, Bob contributed to hundreds of pages of the magazine, including a one-of-a-kind collectors’ issue “To The Moon and Back”—the special issue commemorating the 1969 Moon landing.
Having now retired from his DTC Yearbook duties, Bob is currently hard at work in his Shelburne, Vermont home on a book of his own. Working-titled The Puzzle of History, the volume has reached nearly 500 manuscript pages to date.
On behalf of the Club, I want hereby to thank Bob for his many labors on our Yearbook’s behalf and to wish him well on his book.
____________________________________________________________________
Résumé: 2024
Objective: Consultant, free lance, part time or special projects in publication or graphic design,
full time if the position is compelling. Proficient with Mac OS, Adobe Suite, Quark Express
Art Director/Creative Director/Designer:
Dutch Treat Club Annual Yearbooks 1989-2022
Compiled membership history included in 1995 Annual
TLAS Time Life Alumni Society Newsletter design 2006-2024
New publication logo and format, website design and maintenance, e-marketing
St Albans Museum St Albans, VT, Design of Anniversary logo and promotional pieces 2015-2017
Pierson Library Shelburne VT, Design of promotion materials for the library building fund. 2016-17
Eleva Chamber Players Waterbury VT, Design of promotion materials for their annual concert 2012-2018
The Coffee House Design and production of the Club's Centennial Celebration Book 2015-2016
The Coffee House Cooks! recipes from current and historic members published 2020
Federated Garden Clubs of Vermont Redesigned and maintained their website and created a new logo 2013-2015
CHAMP: Champlain Adaptive Mounted Program 2005-2011
Design of Newsletter, e-newsletter, website and other fundraising materials
Jeff's Maine Sea Food Restaurant, design of logo, menu and promotional pieces 2004-2013
Vermont Governors Council on Physical Fitness and Sports
Design of Awards, Invite and Program 2007-2016
Work & Family Life Newsletter redesign consultant 2007
March of Dimes, Vermont Chapter, Star Chefs Events
Design of posters, booklets, invitations and all peripheral materials 2002, 2003
League for the Hard of Hearing:
Design of Logo/Corporate image, fund raising events, educational materials 1974-2002
ACM (The Association for Computing Machinery): Membership/Publication Promotions 1985
Clinical Experience Magazine: logo and format design for proposed new magazine for
HP Publications. 1984
Overseas Press Club Dateline Magazine (annual) 1991-1992
New corporate logo design adopted 1990
Revival, Theatrical History Revisited Magazine 1992-1994
Family Circle Magazine: logo modification, cover design consultant 1985
plus numerous other assignments
Life Magazine - Layout Artist 1961-1969
Design of the 1969 Special Commemorative Issue “To the Moon and Back”
Show Magazine Creative/Art Director 1969-1970
Business Week Magazine Creative/Art Director 1970-1974 - Redesign launch August 1971
New York City Bicentennial Commission 1974-1976, “76” Logo Design 1975
People Magazine 1974-1982
Member of the Board of Directors:
Time Life Alumni Society, 2010-2024
CHAMP, Champlain Adaptive Mounted Program 2005-2011
Public Relations Director 2006-2011
League for the Hard of Hearing 1977-1999
Secretary of the Board 1987-1994 - Member of the Honorary Board 1999-
The Players 1979-1985
The Hampden-Booth Theatre Library 1993-1994 - Secretary of the Board 1994
Society of Publication Designers 1972-1979
President 1976-1979, Vice-President 1973-1975
Awards from:
Society of Publication Designers
American Society of Magazine Editors, National Magazine Award
Advertising Club of New York
Art Directors Club of New York
American Institute of Graphic Arts
Society of Illustrators
League for the Hard of Hearing, Volunteer of the Year Award
Dutch Treat Club, New York, Gold Medal
Listed in Who's Who
BA/BFA University of Iowa.
Bob Essman: ‘the real hero’ of the DTC Yearbook
– and ‘a tough act to follow’
By Jeremy Main
For more than 35 years, Bob Essman has been a hard-working, cheerful volunteer contributor to the Dutch Treat Club Yearbook and the Time Life Alumni Society Newsletter.
In 1988 Bob began designing and producing the DTC Yearbook. In his letter to readers that year, Ralph Graves, then President of the Club, wrote “the real hero of this book is Bob Essman, who designed it and put it together.”
Year after year, Bob designed and produced the handsome hard-backed volumes which, at that time, just before women were invited to join our ranks, had a distinctly raunchy character. Under Bob, the Yearbook became more dignified but remained classy. Recently, the book migrated here to the Club’s website.
In 2010, when Ralph asked me to take over his duties as DTC Yearbook editor, there was no question that Bob would continue as design director. At about the same time, Ralph also asked me to edit the Time Life Alumni Society newsletter, which had been started and edited for years by Gene Light. Having been a design director at Life, Bob was the obvious choice to tackle the newsletter. He accepted without question and we have worked together in harmony for more than a decade. Although the newsletter was a far more modest affair than the DTC Yearbook, Bob made sure that it was attractive and professional. He designed a handsome logo and had a great talent for finding the right photos to illustrate the articles.
Perhaps some professional backstory is in order. Bob came to Life in 1962 and spent most of his career there and at People, with a brief excursion to redesign Business Week. In those days Life made buckets of money and poured them into enterprises that in later years would have seemed obscenely lavish.
Bob has a particularly vivid memory of Life’s comprehensive coverage of Winston Churchill’s funeral in England in 1965. At the time, Bob was a junior art director. His chief challenge with this special assignment was a clash of deadlines. Churchill’s funeral was scheduled for a Saturday--but Life always closed on Friday, in order to get to its readers on Monday. Life's creative solution was to charter a DC-8 airplane, tear out the insides, and install a full sky-worthy photo lab and editorial office.
With Bob aboard, the plane landed at London’s Heathrow Airport on Saturday morning. The Life team raced off to a nearby hotel for a quick shower, a change of clothes, and lunch. Before they could eat dessert, they were called back to the plane. Relay teams of local motorcyclists—each of them “Beatle-haired and leather-clad,” recalls Bob—began delivering a total of 100 rolls of film to the plane from the 17 photographers whom Life had stationed along the funeral route.
Once the jet took off again and reached cruising altitude, the Life team went to work developing the film, with the editors putting words together. When the plane finally touched down at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, Bob was kneeling on the floor of the cabin, steadying himself against a table, and making the final cover copy fit. Managing editor George Hunt, Bob and a couple of others were pre-cleared for customs and jumped into a waiting limousine. They raced to the R. R. Donnelly printing plant with police sirens clearing the way.
The magazine did get to readers on Monday, but only because a certain 28-year-old layout genius named Bob Essman had personally put in a 36-hour day—with his breakfast in New York, his lunch in London, and a celebratory, post-work supper in Chicago.
Over his many years at Life, Bob contributed to hundreds of pages of the magazine, including a one-of-a-kind collectors’ issue “To The Moon and Back”—the special issue commemorating the 1969 Moon landing.
Having now retired from his DTC Yearbook duties, Bob is currently hard at work in his Shelburne, Vermont home on a book of his own. Working-titled The Puzzle of History, the volume has reached nearly 500 manuscript pages to date.
On behalf of the Club, I want hereby to thank Bob for his many labors on our Yearbook’s behalf and to wish him well on his book.
____________________________________________________________________
Résumé: 2024
Objective: Consultant, free lance, part time or special projects in publication or graphic design,
full time if the position is compelling. Proficient with Mac OS, Adobe Suite, Quark Express
Art Director/Creative Director/Designer:
Dutch Treat Club Annual Yearbooks 1989-2022
Compiled membership history included in 1995 Annual
TLAS Time Life Alumni Society Newsletter design 2006-2024
New publication logo and format, website design and maintenance, e-marketing
St Albans Museum St Albans, VT, Design of Anniversary logo and promotional pieces 2015-2017
Pierson Library Shelburne VT, Design of promotion materials for the library building fund. 2016-17
Eleva Chamber Players Waterbury VT, Design of promotion materials for their annual concert 2012-2018
The Coffee House Design and production of the Club's Centennial Celebration Book 2015-2016
The Coffee House Cooks! recipes from current and historic members published 2020
Federated Garden Clubs of Vermont Redesigned and maintained their website and created a new logo 2013-2015
CHAMP: Champlain Adaptive Mounted Program 2005-2011
Design of Newsletter, e-newsletter, website and other fundraising materials
Jeff's Maine Sea Food Restaurant, design of logo, menu and promotional pieces 2004-2013
Vermont Governors Council on Physical Fitness and Sports
Design of Awards, Invite and Program 2007-2016
Work & Family Life Newsletter redesign consultant 2007
March of Dimes, Vermont Chapter, Star Chefs Events
Design of posters, booklets, invitations and all peripheral materials 2002, 2003
League for the Hard of Hearing:
Design of Logo/Corporate image, fund raising events, educational materials 1974-2002
ACM (The Association for Computing Machinery): Membership/Publication Promotions 1985
Clinical Experience Magazine: logo and format design for proposed new magazine for
HP Publications. 1984
Overseas Press Club Dateline Magazine (annual) 1991-1992
New corporate logo design adopted 1990
Revival, Theatrical History Revisited Magazine 1992-1994
Family Circle Magazine: logo modification, cover design consultant 1985
plus numerous other assignments
Life Magazine - Layout Artist 1961-1969
Design of the 1969 Special Commemorative Issue “To the Moon and Back”
Show Magazine Creative/Art Director 1969-1970
Business Week Magazine Creative/Art Director 1970-1974 - Redesign launch August 1971
New York City Bicentennial Commission 1974-1976, “76” Logo Design 1975
People Magazine 1974-1982
Member of the Board of Directors:
Time Life Alumni Society, 2010-2024
CHAMP, Champlain Adaptive Mounted Program 2005-2011
Public Relations Director 2006-2011
League for the Hard of Hearing 1977-1999
Secretary of the Board 1987-1994 - Member of the Honorary Board 1999-
The Players 1979-1985
The Hampden-Booth Theatre Library 1993-1994 - Secretary of the Board 1994
Society of Publication Designers 1972-1979
President 1976-1979, Vice-President 1973-1975
Awards from:
Society of Publication Designers
American Society of Magazine Editors, National Magazine Award
Advertising Club of New York
Art Directors Club of New York
American Institute of Graphic Arts
Society of Illustrators
League for the Hard of Hearing, Volunteer of the Year Award
Dutch Treat Club, New York, Gold Medal
Listed in Who's Who
BA/BFA University of Iowa.