Veteran jewelry industry journalist Hedda Schupak died at a Philadelphia-area hospital of complications from lung cancer on October 3, 2023, National Jeweler reported. She was 62.
Hedda Shupak
Hedda studied fashion design at Drexel University, later transferring to Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania, where she graduated with a degree in English and communications.
She started as assistant production editor at JCK Magazine, then published out of Radnor, Pennsylvania, more than 30 years ago.
In 1997, she became the publication’s fashion editor.
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 significance of, “the industry finally, FINALLY starting to acknowledge how important it is to sell jewelry as fashion to a female self-purchase audience.”
Schupak became 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.
