New Trier grad Charla Krupp remembered for kindness, determination, talent

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Charla Krupp wrote the best-seller "How Not to Look Old"

Updated: March 3, 2012 8:19AM

People around the world knew Charla Krupp for the style intelligence and media-savvy intuition that over three decades made her a best-selling author and commentator in the fashion field.

But many of them also were beneficiaries of the Wilmette-born author and editor’s creative acts of kindness: A bouquet of flowers for a barely known acquaintance going through hard times, or a job for a recently laid-off friend, courtesy of Ms. Krupp’s intense phone-lobbying efforts.

“She would tell me ‘Oh, this person’s sick and I’m going to send him flowers.’ I’d say, ‘Why on earth would you do that? You barely know him.’ And she would say, ‘Mom, he’s got no one, he’s alone, how can I not do something for him?’” her mother, Esther “Terry” Krupp, remembered last week.

“She was the kindest person I have ever known.”

Ms. Krupp, whose 2008 book “How Not to Look Old” stayed on The New York Times best-seller list for 18 weeks, died of breast cancer Jan. 23 in New York. She was 58.

In fact, Terry Krupp said Friday, Ms. Krupp’s desire not to worry people, combined with another of her personality traits — determination — made her insist that her battle with cancer be kept as private as possible.

When she attended a New Trier High School class reunion last year, she took special care with her makeup and her wig, “and even though she was already so sick, nobody even knew it,” her mother said.

A writing ambition

Ms. Krupp’s compassion, determination and creative abilities were evident even when she was a child, her mother said. She always wanted to be a writer, and early on employed her journalistic talents to support causes she felt were important.

One such was for the construction of Wilmette’s original Centennial Pool, Ms. Krupp’s mother said. When supporters of pool construction narrowly lost a referendum proposal in 1968, “She told me ‘That’s just not right,’ and began writing about it wherever she could,” Terry Krupp said.

When a subsequent pool referendum proposal proved successful in 1971, at least one organizer told Ms. Krupp that her efforts had helped put the campaign over the top.

Ms. Krupp graduated from New Trier West High School the same year, then studied journalism at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where she also served as editor of the Daily Illini.

Magazine intern

Even before she graduated with Bronze Tablet honors in 1975, her eyes were set on the fashion world; she wasn’t able to attend her own graduation because she had won an internship at Mademoiselle magazine and had to be in New York to take the position.

Once she got there, her mother said, Ms. Krupp realized she had found her home.

“She became a New Yorker,” Terry Krupp said.

Ms. Krupp’s writing and creative marketing skills served her well, as she became a respected figure in the fashion publishing and live media world in the ensuing years.

She was Glamour magazine’s entertainment editor for 15 years and eventually developed the magazine’s respected Women of the Year awards. She also wrote and edited for InStyle, Shop Etc., More and People StyleWatch magazines, and returned to Glamour as its beauty director.

Ms. Krupp also wrote for The New York Times, Time, Town & Country and USA Today.

Ms. Krupp appeared more than 130 times on the NBC “Today” show and was a contributor on Oprah Winfrey’s syndicated talk show and ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

In 2008, her first book, “How Not to Look Old” was published and quickly hit The New York Times’ best-seller list.

“I remember her calling me on New Year’s Eve when the book came out, and she said, ‘Mom, it’s already at 27th on the best-seller list!’”

The book remained on the best-seller list for 18 weeks, and sold more than 300,000 copies.

Ms. Krupp was inducted into the University of Illinois’ Illini Media Hall of Fame in 2009.

Penned 2nd book

She wrote a second book in 2010, “How to Never Look Fat Again,” which spent four weeks on the best-seller list.

Terry Krupp said her daughter often enlisted family members in her book and style research: “I don’t have any fashion sense, but she’d tell me not to wear thick sweaters, she’d say, ‘Mom, don’t wear turtle necks.’ And when she had us out in the Hamptons, we’d have a hysterical time with her because we’d all have to put on makeup that she was checking so she could see what it looked like.”

Ms. Krupp was preceded in death by her father, Walter Krupp.

In addition to her mother, of Northbrook, Ms. Krupp is survived by her sister, Lora Nasby of Murietta, Calif.; her brother, Jay, of Buffalo Grove; and two nieces, Mollie and Jamie Krupp.

She is also survived by her husband, Richard Zoglin, a theater critic for Time.

In a statement after her death, Zoglin called Ms. Krupp “a pioneering journalist, a champion of women and an amazing life force,” who touched millions of women with her work.

Ms. Krupp’s funeral was held Jan. 25 at Goldman Funeral Home in Skokie, with interment at Westlawn Cemetery in Norridge. Many of her “Today” Show colleagues flew in for Ms. Krupp’s funeral, her mother said.

The Krupp and Zoglin families have established the Charla Krupp Memorial Fund for Women in Media at the University of Illinois College of Media. Gifts in her memory may be mailed to the University of Illinois, 1305 W. Green St., Urbana, IL 61802, or made online at www.media.illinois.edu/give. Note or type in the fund name to designate your gift.