Charles Levien of Yellow Book dies at 86
Yellowbook founder Charles Levien, whose ambition and acumen drove the development of a company that now enjoys a household name, died at home on Aug. 23 of pulmonary fibrosis. He was 86 and lived in Cutchogue.
Newsday's obituary for Charles Levien
Credit: Handout
In 1949, Rockville Centre native Charles Levien helped take over a small firm that published the yellow-bound volumes of phone numbers and addresses of companies and residents of six areas of Long Island.
Soon after that, Levien officially named his collection of alphabetical directories the Yellow Book, making his mark and leading a Rockville Centre-based firm that grew and eventually became part of a national company that publishes the hefty directories in all states but Maine and Alaska.
Levien, whose ambition and acumen drove the development of a company that now enjoys a household name, died at home on Aug. 23 of pulmonary fibrosis. He was 86 and lived in Cutchogue.
"He always thought everything through," said Alice Levien, his wife of 56 years. "Before he went into a meeting he would analyze everything so he wouldn't be surprised."
Soon after Charles Levien's family bought Merchants Advertising Service -- known as Bettye's Yellow Book, after founder Bettye Gorindar -- Levien took charge and began expanding beyond the six areas of Baldwin, Freeport/Merrick/Wantagh, Huntington, Lynbrook, Rockville Centre and Valley Stream.
By the time Levien sold the company in 1986, Yellow Book had a presence in every Long Island community, said his eldest son, Tom Levien of Newtown, Pa.
"He was a pioneer in the yellow-pages industry, having built the oldest and largest independent publisher in the nation," Yellow Book chief executive and president Joe Walsh told Yellow Pages and Directory Report. "He was truly a giant in the industry."
Alice Levien said her husband had a knack for his trade, just as he had an uncanny talent for fixing things.
Charles Levien graduated from South Side High School in Rockville Centre and attended the College of Charleston in South Carolina for a year.
He had no formal training in mechanics or electronics. Still, there was hardly anything he couldn't repair, she said, adding that he liked to collect tools for tinkering and fixing things around the house.
"I was a good breaker but he could fix just about everything," she said.
Charles Levien and Alice Giden set eyes on each other in the spring of 1955 at the home of her girlfriend in Rockville Centre. They married seven weeks later.
"I found him very sexy," said his wife, who then taught third grade at the Steele School in Baldwin. "He just was so kind and interesting."
Besides his wife and son, Levien is survived by a daughter, Jane O'Brien, of Old Field; a son, John, of Cutchogue; a brother, Lester, of Boynton Beach, Fla.; and five grandsons.
Funeral services were Aug. 24.
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