Hedda Schupak, Longtime Industry Editor, Dies at 62

New York—Longtime jewelry industry journalist Hedda Schupak died Tuesday morning at a Philadelphia-area hospital of complications from lung cancer. 

She was 62.

Longtime friend and fellow industry editor Russ Shor confirmed the news to National Jeweler.

Schupak studied fashion design at Drexel University, later transferring to Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania, where she graduated with a degree in English and communications.

Shor first met Schupak 37 years ago, when she started as assistant production manager at JCK Magazine, then published out of Radnor, Pennsylvania.

In 1997, she became the publication’s fashion editor.
 
“Fashion design was her real passion,” Shor said, and she pushed the industry to see jewelry as more of a fashion accessory and to market it to women interested in buying jewelry for themselves.

For a 2019 National Jeweler article asking members of the industry to weigh in on the biggest developments of the past decade, Schupak listed the industry’s recognition of female self-purchasers as one of them.

She noted the importance of, “the industry finally, FINALLY starting to acknowledge how important it is to sell jewelry as fashion to a female self-purchase audience.”

Schupak rose to become editor-in-chief of JCK Magazine in 2000 and remained in that role until 2009.

In 2010, she became editor of the Centurion Newsletter before announcing her “semi-retirement” last year, telling JCK News Editor Rob Bates that leaving the jewelry industry was “bittersweet.”

“I have just been fortunate to have had such a great career in such a great industry,” she said in the article published on JCKOnline.com. “I’ve had a lot of opportunities to travel around the world, and to meet people from so many places. I just feel very blessed.”

Schupak resided in suburban Philadelphia with her husband, Jim Baum, and their five cats. Baum just retired from First Union Bank.

“They had all these plans,” Shor said. “They were just going to live a good retired life.”

National Jeweler will have more on Schupak’s life and career, including information on funeral services as they become available. 

Anyone with memories of Schupak they would like to share may email National Jeweler Editor-in-Chief Michelle Graff at michelle.graff@nationaljeweler.com.