Richard J. Durrell was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 advertising executive and one of the founding staff members for People

People (magazine)

In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...

 magazine.

Durrell turned down an offer to play baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers franchise in order to attend the University of Minnesota

University of Minnesota

The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...

, from which he was graduated in 1948.

For most of his career he worked for Time Inc.

Time Inc.

Time Inc. is a subsidiary of the media conglomerate Time Warner, the company formed by the 1990 merger of the original Time Inc. and Warner Communications. It publishes 130 magazines, most notably its namesake, Time...

, retiring in 1983. In his retirement years, he occasionally taught a course titled "Magazine Publication and Related Communications" at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut.

He was married to Jacky Durrell, a former Connecticut State Representative and First Selectman of Fairfield

Fairfield, Connecticut

Fairfield is a town located in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It is bordered by the towns of Bridgeport, Trumbull, Easton, Redding and Westport along the Gold Coast of Connecticut. As of the 2010 census, the town had a population of 59,404...

.