Obituaries - July 21, 1999

Charles Roman; Ad Gave Charles Atlas’ Firm Muscle

Charles Roman, 92, who created the indelible Charles Atlas advertisement featuring Mac, a 97-pound weakling, having sand kicked in his face at the beach. Roman was a $35-a-week account executive at an advertising agency in 1928 when he met the bodybuilder Atlas, whose company was doing poorly. Using an experience Atlas related about his teenage years, Roman created the comic-strip ad depicting a skinny Mac being humiliated in front of his girlfriend when a beach bully kicks sand in his face. The sequence continues with Mac subscribing to Atlas’ Dynamic Tension training system and building muscles and ends with Mac punching out the bully to his girlfriend’s praise. The ad was captioned “The insult that made a man out of Mac.” Roman became Atlas’ partner in Charles Atlas Ltd. and later became its sole owner, serving as president from 1929 to 1997. The company continues to sell mail order lessons on exercise and health and has recently expanded to include vitamins and workout clothing. On Friday in New York City.

John Steelman; Assistant to President Truman

John R. Steelman, 99, the only person to serve in the post of assistant to the president of the United States. Steelman was named to the singular position on Dec. 12, 1946, by President Harry S. Truman. Earlier, Steelman had served in the administrations of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Truman as director of the Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion. In 1952, Steelman became head of the U.S. defense mobilization. During his career, he was prominent in negotiating settlements of labor disputes in the railroad and coal industries. On July 14 in Naples, Fla.

A. Stanley Tretick; Photographed Kennedy Family

A. Stanley Tretick, 77, the former Look photographer who captured such memorable images as the toddler John F. Kennedy Jr. peeping out from under his father’s White House desk. That Tretick photo has been featured prominently by news media in the past few days since young Kennedy’s private plane disappeared into the ocean off Martha’s Vineyard. A month before his assassination in 1963, President Kennedy invited Tretick to the White House to photograph his children, John Jr. and Caroline, while their mother, Jacqueline, was out of the country. The president had an advance copy of the magazine displaying the photos as he traveled to Dallas aboard Air Force One. Tretick also photographed Robert F. Kennedy, the president’s brother, including one picture that was used on a postage stamp after Robert’s assassination. Another favorite Tretick photo was of President Kennedy driving a golf cart full of Kennedy children. Born in Baltimore, Tretick grew up in Washington, D.C., and worked for several news organizations, including the Washington Post and United Press International, before taking a job at Look to cover the Kennedy family. After the magazine folded in the 1970s, Tretick became one of the founding photographers of People magazine. On Monday in Gaithersburg, Md., of pneumonia after a series of strokes.