Earl Benjamin Mix Jr.

Earl Benjamin Mix Jr. of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, formerly of Clinton Township, New Jersey, passed away peacefully on Wednesday, May 26th after a short hospitalization. He was 86 years old and had been in declining health for several years.
Descended from some of the first mid-seventeenth century settlers in New Haven, Connecticut, Mr. Mix was born and grew up in New Rochelle, New York, and attended Iona College there. Upon his graduation in 1956, he began a career in telecommunications which spanned almost 50 years, first at New York Telephone, then at AT&T and its spinoff USWest, and finally as head of his own local directory company.
At AT&T he was instrumental in developing the marketing initiatives of the Bell System Yellow Pages program. In 1973 he was chosen to attend AT&T’s executive leadership program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In 1977 he was sent by AT&T to Iran, where he spent several months assisting the Shah’s effort to modernize Iranian telephone directories.
In 1981 Mr. Mix was named Director of Public Communications, responsible for the marketing of the nationwide AT&T public telephone network.
He retired from AT&T in 1986 and joined USWest Direct as a Vice President of their telephone directory business. In 1989, he retired from USWest to become CEO of two independent directory companies, first in Denver, Colorado and then in San Antonio, Texas. His active career ended with the sale of that business.
Mr. Mix is survived by his second wife, the former Marcia Wright of Garden City, New York; his sister, Barbara Dawson of Marlton, New Jersey; a half-brother, Donal Mix of Stoughton, Wisconsin; a son, Earl Benjamin Mix III of Darien, Connecticut and a daughter, Aileen M. Newquist of Port St. Lucie, Florida from his first marriage; a son, Christopher M. Wright of Coatesville, Pennsylvania, from his second marriage; two granddaughters and two grandsons.
His first marriage, to the former Mary Ellen Murphy, ended in divorce.