|
|
February 2, 2001/Shevet 8, 5761, Vol. 53, No.18
Local publisher leaves business
BETH OLSON
Editorial Assistant
After 25 years at the helm of Oryx Press, Phyllis Steckler has decided to move on.
Phoenix-based Oryx Press is an information publisher with books in every library in the country, and Phyllis Steckler is the woman who put them there. Steckler founded the business in 1975 and after celebrating 25 years in business, she has sold the company to Greenwood Publishing Group of Westport, Conn.
Steckler started her publishing career in New York City in 1954 as an editorial assistant. After 20 years in the publishing business in New York, she moved to Phoenix in 1973, bringing with her projects purchased from her most recent employer, Holt Information Systems.
Once in Phoenix, Steckler worked from the back of her husband Stuart's art gallery with a rented desk, a calculator and an old typewriter.
The first major project she completed was called Grant Information Systems - which is still being published today. The publication "provides information about research and demonstration grants for colleges and universities to enable their college students to get grants to continue their research," Steckler explains. "It is widely used throughout the country."
In addition to the print format, the information is also provided on compact disc and online - and is updated daily.
This project led to many more and there are now nearly 700 Oryx Press books in print.
The company's main market is libraries - public libraries, college and university libraries, school libraries and special libraries, such as newspapers and businesses.
Steckler says that her connections in the publishing industry, as well as her insight into what the market needed, have been the keys to her success.
"Because I have so many contacts throughout the country, I was always aware of what was going to be needed next," says Steckler.
Two new projects are an encyclopedia of Holocaust literature and a Holocaust source book, which is a collection of information sources relating to the Holocaust.
"Those are unique volumes that have never been done before," Steckler says.
After years as one of the premiere information publishers in the country, Steckler achieved her goal.
"I reached my 25th anniversary on the first of February. I had always wanted to stay in business as an independently owned publisher for 25 years and when I made it, I decided it was time to divest myself of the company," Steckler explains.
At that time, she sold the assets of the company to Greenwood Publishing Group, which will continue to publish the reference books and databases of Oryx Press, including 50-75 new titles per year. She will remain with the company for one year as a "transition consultant."
Steckler has been an asset not only to the publishing industry, but to the local community as well. She is the current president of the Contemporary Forum at the Phoenix Art Museum and formerly served as president of the Arizona Center for the Book and the University Club of Phoenix. She has also served on the boards of the Phoenix Public Library Friends and the Phoenix Library Foundation.
Steckler is also involved in the Jewish community and she and her family have been members of Temple Solel for many years. She also attends Temple Beth Israel on occasion.
She has two children, Randy of Phoenix, and Sharon Slotky of Glencoe, Ill., and four grandchildren.
|
