Clay S. Felker, 82; Influential Editor of New York Magazine

He entered Duke University in 1942. He graduated nine years later, after wartime service in the Navy and a stint as a statistician for the New York Giants baseball team.

He moved to New York and wrote about sports and politics for Life magazine. With his background in sports -- he later wrote a book about baseball manager Casey Stengel -- Mr. Felker was assigned to a secret Time-Life group that developed Sports Illustrated in 1954.

As features editor of Esquire magazine from 1957 to 1962, he hired Gore Vidal to write a column on politics and asked novelist Norman Mailer to cover the 1960 Democratic National Convention. Mailer's article, "Superman Comes to the Supermarket," was hailed as an early example of new journalism.

When Mr. Felker lost out to Harold Hayes as top editor of Esquire, he left the magazine and worked as a consultant for the Herald Tribune, a distinguished but struggling newspaper. In 1964, he became editor of the paper's Sunday magazine, which he transformed into a showcase of smart reporting and writing.

"Each week's lineup was as varied and unpredictable as the city itself," Richard Kluger wrote in "The Paper," a history of the Herald Tribune.

In 1977, after Mr. Felker was forced out as editor of New York magazine, he became publisher and editor of Esquire, where he hoped to revitalize the ailing men's journal. Less than two years later, the magazine was sold out from under him, and he was adrift once more.

For several years, he was a consultant to 20th Century Fox, which transformed several stories he had edited, most notably "Saturday Night Fever" (1977) and "Urban Cowboy" (1980), into movies.

Mr. Felker continued to have modest triumphs as editor of Adweek magazine and the business-oriented Manhattan Inc. in the 1980s, but both efforts proved short-lived. He was still remembered as the editor who created -- and lost -- New York.

He turned to teaching in the 1990s and had a long association with the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, which named its center for magazine studies in his honor. He became a powerful force at the school, spotting young talent and overseeing the magazine writing and design programs.

Mr. Felker viewed the glamour and excitement of New York with never-ending wonder. He shared a spacious apartment on East 57th Street with Sheehy, his wife since 1984, and Manhattan's literary crowd clamored for invitations to their parties. Long after he had retired from running magazines, Mr. Felker continued to be regarded as a sage of journalistic wisdom.

"His reach may have exceeded his grasp," Newsweek declared in 1977, but "Felker has left a strong and highly personal imprint on American journalism."

His earlier marriages to Leslie Blatt Felker and actress Pamela Tiffin ended in divorce. In addition to his wife, survivors include a daughter, Mohm Phat Sheehy of Cambridge, Mass.; a stepdaughter, Maura Sheehy of Brooklyn, N.Y.; a sister; and three grandchildren.