People Magazine Founder Dies

Richard Durrell, the founding publisher of People magazine, died Friday at his home in Fairfield, Connecticut. He was 82.

Durrell joined Time Inc. as a circulation newsstand rep following graduation from the University of Minnesota in 1948.

He became publisher of People's test launch in 1973.

"The sales far exceeded our expectations," Durrell said in a 1987 interview with the Connecticut Post. The magazine launched nationally in 1974, the first issue featuring pearl-biting Mia Farrow on its cover.

"At the beginning of People, there was a journalistic watershed," Durrell told the Post. "There were mass movements, Watergate, Chappaquidick. People were interested in individuals. People magazine tried to describe what a person was about and go beyond the surface of that person."

Durrell retired in 1984.

A memorial service will take place April 5 in Fairfield.

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