“Aside from boundless creativity, Alan was a hopeless romantic. He wrote verses non-stop and enjoyed charming an audience,” Weisbord said in a statement.

Tripp was born in Leavenworth, Kansas, and graduated from Northwestern University. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Chicago, a radio broadcaster in New York, a copywriter for a New York advertising agency and a columnist for an ad business trade journal before moving to Philadelphia.

He spent four years in the Army Signals Corps and served during World War II. He became president of the ad agency Bauer, Tripp, Foley, Inc., which produced live weekly TV musicals and oversaw local and national TV ads.

He relocated to New York in 1966 and served as president and CEO of Product Resources International before returning to Philadelphia in 1987 to be near his family. He was married to his wife, Maggie Tripp, for 73 years.

“He was a source of just constant support in every way to me and my family,” his granddaughter Dr. Abigail Tripp Berman said.

He died of COVID-19 at Beaumont at Bryn Mawr retirement community on Dec. 24. He was 103.

This article was originally published in the Jewish Exponent as part of its COVID-19 obituary coverage.