Earl E. Hoyt Jr.

Earl Edward Hoyt, Jr., husband of the late Bernice M. Hoyt and an award-winning industrial designer who created a plethora of unique bottles, packages, product forms, and graphic identities for leading corporations in the household goods, consumer products, and professional equipment sectors, died on November 17, 2024 at Arden Courts of Old Orchard, a memory care facility in Easton, Pa. where he had resided since 2021. He was 88 years old. The couple were former residents of Wantage, N.J., Woodstock, N.Y., and several Bergen County, N.J. communities. Hoyt was born in Binghamton, N.Y., a son of Earl Edward Hoyt, Sr., a machinist, and Angelina Roberta Rutigliano, a textile designer known professionally as Lea LaRue Hoyt. Raised initially in Harlem, New York City before settling in Fair Lawn, N.J., Hoyt entered the U.S. Army in 1954, completing basic training at Fort Dix, N.J.; training as a teletype interceptor and Morse intercept operator in the ASA Student Battalion at Fort Devens, Mass.; and serving with the Army Security Administration Field Station 8605th AAU at the Helemano Military Reservation in Oahu, Hawaii, where he also earned educational credits from the United States Armed Forces Institute. Honorably discharged in 1956, he entered the industrial design program at Pratt Institute under the expiring GI bill and graduated with honors in 1960 with a bachelor of arts, marrying fellow Pratt graphic design graduate Bernice P. Maseritz that summer. Hoyt’s senior project conceptualized vertically integrated solutions for the production and distribution of frozen food including harvesting crops, preparing and storing flash-frozen goods, and supermarket deliveries. Earl was hired straight from college by Donald Deskey as a draftsman and designer in the Special Projects department at Donald Deskey Associates (DDA), which Earl described as “a vehicle that Mr. Deskey used to explore things of personal interest to him.” While at Deskey, Hoyt spearheaded designs for both the Scott Paper Company and the Travelers Life Insurance Company pavilions constructed at the 1964 New York World’s Fair, among numerous other Hoyt-rendered projects now catalogued in the Smithsonian Institute’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum permanent collection. Hoyt’s media range included sketch renderings in colored pencil and final presentations in watercolor, pastels, colored markers, gouache and graphite highlights, and layered Cello-Tak overlays. During a subsequent tenure at corporate identity and marketing firm Lippincott & Margulies in 1965, Hoyt added new business development and account sales experience to his creative design capabilities before embarking on his in 1966, establishing the industrial design and marketing consultancy, The Hoyt Group, Inc., which comprised the bulk of his professional career. Hoyt retired from full-time industrial design work in 1992, transitioning his illustration talents to watercolor painting, a passion he shared with wife through classes and domestic and international painting trips. Professionally, Hoyt leveraged his knowledge of existing and emerging materials, manufacturing processes, and dispensing technologies to create his innovative and visual designs, largely focusing his efforts on product packaging, but he also established a history of dental and office equipment, consumer audio equipment, watches, electronics and corporate identity projects, marketing his creative services to dozens of Fortune 500 companies. Hoyt was fond of sharing his industry experience and creative process through student teaching, serving at various times as a part-time instructor at the School of Visual Arts, Pratt Institute, and Rutgers School of Packaging and Engineering, as well as an occasional speaker in the field. He ultimately self-published “Industrial Design: Problem Solving, Creativity, and Innovation,” a collection of 150 detailed case studies drawn from his career that offer advice to students on how to navigate the creative process in the business world. Hoyt was the recipient of numerous industry awards, from the American Institute of Architects, Package Design Magazine, Society of the Plastics Industry, Industrial Designers Society of America, American Institute of Graphic Artists, Packaging Institute USA, N.J. Packaging Executives Club, Food and Drug Packaging Magazine, and the Clio Awards Excellence in Packaging. He holds 74 U.S. utility and design patents. Known as “Bud” among family and friends, he was an enthusiastic story-teller, enjoyed outdoor activities including skiing, fishing, and hiking—often at his remote Redkill, N.Y. cabin and mountain property in the Catskills—and found great joy in playing guitar and traditional country dancing with Bernice. Hoyt is survived by his sons—Earl E. "Ted" Hoyt III (and wife Stacey G. Hoyt), Stroudsburg, Pa., and Justin P. Hoyt, Wantage, N.J.—and three granddaughters: Winnai Delight and Eva Patricia, Stroudsburg, Pa., and Marina Marjorie, Madison, N.J. Earl was preceded in death by his wife Bernice and his sisters Elnora “Lea” Andrews and Geraldine “Gerry” McKeone. A memorial service and final resting at the George Washington Memorial Park All Faiths' Memorial Tower columbarium, Paramus, N.J., will be at the family's convenience. Private cremation services have been entrusted to the Pinkel Funeral Home, 31 Bank Street (Route 23), Sussex, NJ. Online condolences may be offered to the family at www.pinkelfuneralhome.com.

Earl E. Hoyt Jr.

July 16, 1936 - November 17, 2024