Helen Reichert

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Helen Reichert, born Helen Faith Kahn on November 11, 1901, in Manhattan, was an American talk show host, educator, and longtime NYU professor. Known as Helen “Happy” Reichert, she lived to age 109, dying on September 25, 2011, in New York City. At the time of her death she was one of Cornell University’s oldest alumni.

Early life and education
Her parents were Polish Jewish immigrants on the Lower East Side. As a girl, she joined the Girl Scouts and helped the first troop to sell World War I war bonds. She faced anti-Semitism in Ithaca as a Cornell student and changed her name from Kahn to Keane to help with housing. She studied at Cornell University, earning a BA in English in 1925 as a Phi Beta Kappa graduate. She later earned an MA in psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1931. She also participated in the Cornell women’s crew team during college.

Career
In 1947, Reichert began a 30-year teaching career at New York University’s Graduate School of Retailing, teaching Fashion Co-ordination and a course she created called Costume History. She helped found the Round Table of Fashion Executives in 1949. She worked as a copywriter for Bloomingdale’s and later as a fashion coordinator for Montgomery Ward. In 1951 she hosted FYI: The Helen Faith Keane Show on New York Channel 5, a public-focused TV talk show that invited viewer questions and featured experts on topics such as cooking, housekeeping, music, narcotics, and breast cancer. The program also supported public causes, including the League of Women Voters and the Volunteers of America, and won the McCall’s Golden Mike Award for Women in Radio and Television in 1951.

Personal life and philanthropy
In 1939 she married cardiologist Dr. Philip Reichert. They had no children. Reichert founded the Helen F. Reichert Scholarship at Weill Cornell in honor of her husband. She had three siblings, including Irving Kahn, a noted investor, and Peter Keane, a Hollywood cinematographer; all four siblings lived to a very old age.

Death and legacy
Helen Reichert died of natural causes on September 25, 2011, in her Park Avenue apartment. She was survived by her centenarian brothers and many nieces and nephews. Her body was donated to medical research at Weill Cornell, and she left $100,000 to Cornell’s West Campus House System. The Reichert Suite in Carl Becker House is named in her honor, and donations to Cornell Medical College were requested in lieu of flowers. Her life blended education, television, and philanthropy, and she is remembered as a pioneering figure in fashion education and public broadcasting.