Alfred J. Scalpone; TV, Ad Executive Coined ‘Family That Prays Together’

Alfred J. Scalpone, 86, a former television network executive and advertising writer credited with creating the slogan “The family that prays together, stays together.” Born in New York City, Scalpone attended Columbia University and began his advertising career as an office boy with Young and Rubicam. He moved up through the ranks, working as a copywriter, scriptwriter and vice president at the firm, handling such programs as “The Burns and Allen Show” and “The Fred Astaire Packard Hour.” Scalpone helped create the Armed Forces Radio Service during World War II. He also was vice president for radio and television programming at McCann Erickson, a vice president of CBS Television and vice president of W.R. Grace & Co. Scalpone is credited in the Oxford Dictionary of Famous Quotations as the author of the phrases “The family that prays together, stays together” and “A world at prayer is a world at peace.” Both were written for Father Patrick Peyton, a Roman Catholic priest who was the producer of the “Family Theater” weekly radio series, which ran for 22 years on the Mutual Broadcasting Co. network. On April 21 in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., of congestive heart failure.