Daniel Reid Topping

Dan Topping, an owner of the New York Yankees in their glory years after World War II, died of complications of emphysema in May 1974. He was 61 years old. As the grandson of John A. Topping, once president of Republic Iron and Steel, and Daniel G. Reid, the tin plate king of half a century ago, he inherited the fortune that enabled him to become,an owner of the Yankees for 22 years. He was also the principal owner of two professional ‘football teams and he attained international recognition as an amateur golfer. Mr. Topping was married six times, five of the unions ended in divorce. His wives were Theodora Boettger, whom he married in 1932; Arline Judge, the actress, hi 1937; Sonja Henie, the figure skater, in 1940; Kay Sutton, actress, in 1946; Alice, Meade Lowthers, in 1952; and Charlotte Ann Lillard, in 1957. Mr. Topping, with Leland S. (Larry) MacPhail, a baseball impresario, and Del E. Webb, a construction millionaire, acquired the Yankees in 1945 for $2.8‐million. After the 1947 season, he and Mr. Webb purchased Mr. MacPhail's interest for $2‐million. During the next 17 seasons, with Mr. Topping as the chief executive pfficer with the title of president. He was born June 11, 1912, at Greenwich, Conn., the son of Henry J. Topping and Rhea Reid Topping. Mr. Topping participated in athletics at the Hun School in Lawrenceville, N.J., and at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1930, after two years with the Bankers Trust Company, he opened a New York advertising agency, Lloyd and Topping. Then, in 1934, he began his career as a sports executive by purchasing an interest in the Brooklyn Dodgers of the National Football League. At the time, he was a leading amateur golfer. Mr. Topping entered baseball with the Yankees, and after the war, he shifted his football interests to the New York Yankees of the All‐America Conference. But. when the A.A.C. folded following the 1949 season, he concentrated on baseball. He also served as a director of National Airlines, Madison Square Garden, the Automatic Canteen Company and Louis Sherry, Inc. After he left the Yankees, Mr. Topping retired with his family to Florida. He lived in the exclusive oceanside. community of Golden Beach, near Miami, and on his yacht. He leaves, besides his wife, nine children—a son, Dan Topping Jr. of Miami Shores, by his second. marriage; a daughter, Rhea of Far Hills, N.J., by his fourth marriage; a son, David, and It daughter, Tracy, of Manhasset, L.I., by his fifth marriage; and five children, Robert, Thomas, ‘James, John. and Leigh, by his last marriage.