Your browser is out-of-date!

Update your browser to view this website correctly. Update my browser now

×

CE Columnist Hans Fantel Dead At 84

Hans Fantel, a founding editor of Stereo Review, former consumer electronics columnist for the New York Times, and a fighter in the Czechoslovakian underground during World War II, died from injuries suffered here in a car accident in early May.

He was 84.

He is survived by his wife, Shea. They lived in New Marlborough, Mass., but also had an apartment in New York

His byline appeared for the first time in the Times in 1963, but his electronics columns ran from 1977 to 1994. Fantel also wrote books and articles about topics unrelated to consumer electronics. His books include “William Penn: Apostle of Dissent” and “The Waltz Kings,” a book about the Strauss family of composers.

Fantel grew up in pre-war Vienna and last saw his father at age 16. His father, whose mother was Jewish, was an opponent of German rearmament. The father was executed by the Nazis. Soon after the father’s arrest, Fantel was expelled from school because of his Jewish heritage. He fled to Czechoslovakia and served in the underground. He came to New York in 1941.

Featured

Close