Remembering Former CMR Editor and Publisher Art Kavaler

Arthur R. Kavaler.

Arthur (Art) R. Kavaler, longtime publisher and editor in chief of Chemical Market Reporter (CMR), died on January 18, according to his family. He was 91. The cause was complications from heart disease. 

Art, also known in jest as Kojak because of his bald pate, was a legend among chemical industry journalists and commentators. Art served for 46 years on CMR, and retired in 1990. CMR would later be incorporated into ICIS Chemical Business.

Chemical industry journalists are a small and close community, in a big yet, close industry, and Art was always at the top of his game. In his role as publisher and editor-in-chief of CMR he was generous with his knowledge and insights, taking the view--unspoken but tacit--that good, informed reporting transcended any “rivalry” among publications.

This attitude hailed from his deep news background at WQXR, the radio station of the New York Times, and in the Washington bureau of the Syracuse Herald-Journal. He was a graduate of New York University and in 1946 earned a Master’s degree at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

As his family noted: Art was "a large personality and wonderful raconteur with a zest for life, brilliant, a probing reporter, and an outspoken editor with strong convictions, he made an enormous impact on chemical industry journalism."

Art voiced his frank views on the chemical industry via the pages of Chemical Business magazine, which he had launched alongside CMR at Schnell Publishing Co. and at various industry meetings. His message--that more open communications are needed from industry CEOs--still resonates today.