John Turner Sargent, Sr.

John Turner Sargent Sr. (June 26, 1924 – February 5, 2012) was president and CEO of the Doubleday and Company publishing house from 1963 to 1978, taking over from the previous president, Douglas Black. He led the expansion of the company from "a modest, family-controlled business to an industry giant with interests extending into broadcasting and baseball."

Marriage and family In May 1953 Sargent married Neltje Doubleday, who was 18. She was the granddaughter of the late Frank N. Doubleday, who founded the Doubleday publishing company in 1897.

While Sargent served as president and CEO until 1978, he led the company through a major expansion, expanding its publishing and diversifying its businesses. As reported by Bruce Weber,

By 1979, the year after he left the presidency and was made chairman, Doubleday was publishing 700 books annually. The company had bought a textbook subsidiary and the Dell Publishing Company, which included Dell paperbacks. It was operating more than a dozen book clubs, including the mammoth Literary Guild; more than two dozen Doubleday bookshops across the country; and four book printing and binding companies.

Sargent was active in supporting literary and cultural institutions in the city. Deeply involved in its social life, he was described as a socialite and for years hosted a Christmas Eve party strictly for single people.

Community service Sargent was a trustee of the New York Public Library, the New York Zoological Society and the American Academy in Rome.

He died in 2012, aged 87, after recent years of frail health following a stroke.