Alice Joy Zea, former president of AZ List Marketing, died May 1. She was 91.
She was born on Jan. 26, 1919, in Brooklyn, NY, the daughter of Samuel and Norma Katz. (The family name was later changed to Karl.) She received her B.A. in psychology from New York University in 1940, the first member of her family to graduate from college.
Between 1940 and 1944 she worked in personnel at Bell Labs in New York, and in 1944 she married James Gwin Zea and moved to California. Returning to New York in 1945, she worked at Revlon until 1948 when her first daughter, Kristi, was born. Her second daughter, Marni, was born four years later. In 1962 Zea went to work for her brother, Arthur Martin Karl, founder and president of Names Unlimited, a list brokerage firm in New York. She worked at there until her brother’s sudden death in 1970. A year later, she joined another brokerage firm, Direct Media (now Direct Media Millard) in Rye, NY.
In 1976 Zea opened her own list brokerage company, AZ Lists, in Greenwich, CT. As the firm thrived during the next few years she changed the name to AZ Marketing Services. She worked at the company daily until she sold it to 21st Century Marketing in 2000, when she was 81 years old.
In 1995 Zea received the Woman of the Year Award from Women’s Direct Marketing International, an organization she helped found in 1970 (as the Women’s Direct Response Group). Five years later she received the Silver Apple Award from the Direct Marketing Club of New York. She served on the board of directors of the Family Centers in Greenwich, CT.
Zea was considered a pioneer by women in the direct marketing industry, and throughout her professional life she was a mentor and role model for women in business. In 2003 Zea moved to Atria Darien (formerly Sterling Glen) in Connecticut, where she worked with local children in a literacy program and pursued various community and cultural interests.
Zea is survived by her daughters, Kristi Zea of Valley Cottage, NY, and Marni Zea Clippinger of Cambridge, MA, and her two granddaughters, Norma Zea Kuhling and Emma Zea Clippinger.
A memorial service will be held at the Greenwich Audubon Society on July 1 at 10:30 am. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in her name to Gardens for Health (www.gardensforhealth.org), an organization based in Rwanda that was founded by her granddaughter Emma.
