Louis Stone, 90, from family of writers

SOMETIMES Louis F. Stone became so fed up with his public relations career that he would announce that he'd rather be driving a bulldozer.

And Lou knew something about driving a bulldozer. As a member of the Navy's legendary Seabees Construction Battalion, he operated a bulldozer, among other duties, on South Pacific islands in World War II.

As Gen. Douglas MacArthur pursued his island-hopping campaign against the Japanese, his forces needed aircraft landing fields and other resources for the troops.

"He once remarked that his outfit would be building officers' quarters on one side of an island while the Marines were fighting the Japanese on the other side," said his son, Barney Stone.

Lou came back from the war and launched a newspaper career, which included the Daily News in the mid-'50s, then got into public relations in Philadelphia, specializing in the financial and industrial sectors.

He died Oct. 20. He was 90 and was living in Cambridge, Mass., but had lived in Haddonfield, N.J., Logan and Glenside.

Lou was born in Philadelphia to Bernard Feinstein and Katy Novack, Jewish immigrants from czarist Russia, who ran a dry- goods store in Haddonfield.

He attended high school in Haddonfield and graduated from Temple University with a degree in economics and political science.

He worked at the Cramp Shipyard in Camden when World War II broke out, then enlisted in the Navy.

When he returned from the war, he was engaged to an Australian woman. But he soon met Deena Zeitlin, who had lived a block from him in Logan and was a friend of his mother, who introduced them. They were married in 1946.

He worked as a reporter and editor for several newspapers, including the old Philadelphia Record, which closed in 1947; the Trentonian, the York Gazette & Daily and the Akron Beacon-Journal before joining the Daily News, where he was an assistant to the editor.

Lou switched to public relations and spent decades working as a writer and editor for Gray & Rogers and then Lewis, Gilman & Kynett, in Philadelphia.

He came from a family of writers. His late older brother, I.F. Stone, was a highly regarded left-wing journalist (who worked for the Philadelphia Inquirer at one time). His self-published I.F. Stone's Weekly was an influential publication in the '60s.

Another brother, Mark, was a writer and publisher, and his sister, Judy Stone, was a film critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and author of three books.

Lou's private funeral in Cambridge, Mass., on Friday featured a veritable who's who of accomplishment.

Sharing their memories of Lou were his children, Susan Kedem, a dance therapist; Barney Stone, a software entrepreneur, and Emily Stone, a project manager.

Also present were sister Judy; Celia Gilbert, daughter of I.F. Stone, and her husband, Walter Gilbert, a Nobel laureate in chemistry; and Lou's nephews, Christopher Stone, law professor at the University of Southern California; Jerome Stone, past president of the Federation of American Scientists, and Peter H. Stone, correspondent for the National Journal.

"He was an easygoing, unassuming good family man," said his son, Barney. "He was always interested in history and economics and followed the family's passion for left-wing politics. He was a very supportive father."

He also is survived by six grandchildren. *