Orvil Dryfoos attended the Horace Mann School in New York City and Dartmouth College.
Dryfoos was prevented from serving in World War II due to a diagnosis of rheumatic heart disease.
"[2] In 1942, Dryfoos left Wall Street to be groomed to lead The New York Times and he became a reporter on the local staff.
Another of Dryfoos's first orders of business was launching the Western Edition of The New York Times, which was announced on October 31, 1961.
The defining struggle of Dryfoos' tenure at The Times was a lengthy a massive newspaper strike,[2] which began in late 1962 and brought the publishing industry of New York to its knees.
The stress of negotiations and continuing to produce as much of a paper as possible adversely affected Dryfoos's health, as he worked to resolve the strike.
Dryfoos maintained cordial relations with strikers throughout the stoppage and greeted the staff with a letter stating, "It's good to see you back at work!
[6] James Reston, the Washington correspondent and future executive editor of The New York Times who was also a close friend of Dryfoos, gave the eulogy.