Edward Shepherd Mead; Wrote ‘How to Succeed in Business’

Edward Shepherd Mead, 80, who documented his rise to corporate power in “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” a memoir that became a legendary New York and Hollywood musical. Mead began working for a New York advertising agency in the mail room and eventually became head of the radio copy staff for Benton and Bowles, writing soap operas for Procter & Gamble. At about that time--in the late 1930s--he also began writing satirical novels about his profession. “How to Succeed,” published in 1952, was set to music by Abe Burrows and Frank Loesser and others and ran on Broadway for several years, starring Robert Morse. It was made into a 1967 picture starring Morse and Rudy Vallee. In London on Aug. 15,of a stroke, Daily Variety reported this week.