News: People

Al Paul Lefton, Jr., longtime ad executive, dies

Longtime Philadelphia advertising executive Al Paul Lefton, Jr. of Gladwyne, PA and Sconset, Mass. died on Tuesday, February 5 of complications from MSA. He was 84.

Following college, Lefton joined the Al Paul Lefton agency, a Philadelphia and New York firm founded by his father. He succeeded his father as president/ceo in 1964 and continued in that role until his retirement in 2010. Under his tenure, the Lefton Company grew to become of the Top 100 ad agencies in the U.S. Al Paul Lefton Co. was one of the oldest independent advertising agencies in Philadelphia when it was acquired by Wilmington, Del.-basedAloysius Butler & Clark in 2010. Al Paul Lefton Co. was founded in 1928 and over the years counted among its clients brands including Schmidt’s beer, Brillo, English Leather, Mac Trucks, Mazda, Michelin and RCA.

Lefton grew up in Bethayres, Pa., graduated from Germantown Academy; and earned his B.A. from Yale in 1950, where he served as business manager of the Yale Daily News. He spent two years in the US Army, assigned to an intelligence unit in Heidelberg, Germany. Lefton supported multiple Philadelphia arts and charitable organizations, serving on the boards of the University of the Arts, the Women's Medical College, the Mann Music Center, and the Northern Home for Children.

He is survived by his wife, Amarilice; three children, Alice, Marie and Terry; and five grandchildren. Services will be held at Waverly Heights in Gladwyne on Monday, February 11 at 11:00 a.m. Donations in lieu of flowers should be sent in Lefton's honor to the Yale Alumni Fund, PO Box 2038, New Haven, CT 06521-2038.