Arthur Sloane, longtime Newsday employee, dies at 90

When Arthur Sloane took a job at Newsday in the 1950s, he didn’t know he’d start a family legacy.

When he died March 20 at St. Francis Hospital in Flower Hill, Sloane left behind a more than 35-year career and a close-knit family that followed in their father’s footsteps in newspaper production. He was 90.

“My dad was a really easygoing guy. He was always joking around,” said his daughter Laura Interrant.

Sloane was born in Brooklyn on March 30, 1927, and grew up in Richmond Hill, Queens. He joined the army near the end of World War II, in 1945, though he never was deployed, his daughter Denise Marhoffer said.

In 1949, Sloane and his wife, Ann, bought a house in New Hyde Park, where they lived until his death, Marhoffer said. The couple had heard the schools were strong, and they loved the suburban community, perfect for their growing family of five children — four girls and a boy, the youngest.

“Both my parents finished high school but didn’t go any further than that, so educating their children was at the top of their list,” Marhoffer said.

At home, Arthur Sloane was the laid-back parent who loved to dote on his children. He especially wanted his daughters to be successful, Marhoffer said.

“He taught us how to change tires before we could get our driver’s licenses because he didn’t want us calling if we got a flat in the middle of the night,” she said.

In the 1950s, Sloane started at Newsday, where he worked in the composing room.

“Back in that time, it was a good stable job,” Interrant said. “I don’t know if he knew what to expect.”

Newsday became a second family home over the course of Sloane’s decades-long career.

The Sloane children remembered walking through the halls of Newsday’s former building in Garden City and attending family barbecues for employees. Arthur Sloane would bring home leftover slugs — lines of metal letters and words used in printing — that spelled out his children’s names as little surprises, Marhoffer said.

When the children grew older, three of the five took jobs printing Newsday, too. Interrant said her younger sister Janice Sloane was the first to get a job in the paper room in the 1970s. Interrant and her brother, William, followed in collating, and they both met their spouses there.

Arthur Sloane retired in 1992. He and Ann Sloane celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary in the fall.

The family held visiting and private services Sunday. Sloane was buried at Pinelawn Cemetery in Farmingdale.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by his daughter Kathleen Vedder and her husband, Lawrence, of Syosset; Marhoffer and her husband, Joseph, of New Hyde Park; his daughter Janice Sloane, of East Northport; Interrant and her husband, Gary, of St. James; and his son, William Sloane, and his wife, Carol, of Lindenhurst. He is also survived by 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.