Harry Ernest Zelenko was born in New York City on January 28, 1928 and died in Quito, Ecuador on September 16, 2024.
At heart, Harry Zelenko was a magician, juggling one career, one skill set, and then another. He was an award-winning designer, painter, illustrator, writer, and photographer who became a world-renowned orchid expert. A native New Yorker, he was born in 1928 in Harlem Hospital. In 2000, he retired to Quito, Ecuador to further his passion for orchids. He died in Quito, Ecuador at the age of 96 on September 16, 2024.
In 1953, Harry and Marion opened Zelenko Associates, which became a successful advertising, marketing, and design office in New York City. Together, they crafted iconic corporate images. To mention only a few, these graphic design statements were developed for dynamic consumer brands, including Ferrara Candies, Maxwell House Coffee, International Flavors and Fragrances, Great Adventure Theme Park (in 1974, when the park was first opened and was under the creative direction of Warner LeRoy), and Black Enterprise Magazine (working closely with founder and publisher, Earl G. Graves, Sr. they created the magazine's logo). Marion died in 1983.
From 1995 to 2000, Harry partnered with Emmy Award-winner Lou Dorfsman, former creative director of advertising and design for CBS. Together, they built upon the clean, modern aesthetic Harry and Marion Zelenko were known for as they created corporate images/logos summarized in a booklet called "The Tip of The Iceberg".
Harry's work was not limited to advertising design. He designed games, including "Chop Suey for Ideal Toys", which premiered in 1967. In 1988, he created a series of special occasion stamps for the US Post Office. In 1991, he conceived a LOVE-themed stamp (Love Makes The World Go Round), a heart-shaped world against a black background. He put a modern spin on the American flag for another USPS stamp that same year. He also designed a series of orchid stamps during his time in Quito, Ecuador, where he became an award-winning member of the South American orchid community, embarking on several high-profile botanically-related design projects.
Harry turned to orchids initially to fill the void after Marion's passing. Twelve plants grown for love, not for profit, became 20, became hundreds, then became thousands. Watercolor was his métier, and he spent more than a dozen years painting the Oncidium species of orchids collected by trekking through rainforests and hiking hazardous hilltops, exploring orchid-growing habitats in far-flung corners of the world.
Harry's after-advertising life's labor resulted in a best-selling book, "Orchids: The Pictorial Encyclopedia of Oncidium", the first edition was published in 1997. Lauded by The New York Times and Interview Magazine, among other media, he became an orchid celebrity. Awards and speaking engagements followed, and he became sought after as an expert, an acclaimed speaker, and a respected judge everywhere, from The World Orchid Show in NYC to esteemed conferences around the world, from Ecuador to Sweden to Kuala Lumpur. His passion for orchids earned him significant renown.
In 1998, his story was revealed in the non-fiction bestseller "The Orchid Thief" by New Yorker Magazine writer Susan Orlean. The book, which one reviewer called "swashbuckling", was a dark look at the fierce nature of orchid collectors, a point of view that did not leave Harry entirely at ease. In 2002, "The Orchid Thief" went on to become an adaptation, a film that's since earned a cult following. Nicolas Cage starred in the Spike Jonze film about a writer's fantastical struggle to adapt "The Orchid Thief" into a film.
Harry secured nearly impossible-to-find plants to paint from life. Oncidium was his favorite species, and one he felt was comparatively little chronicled. Yellow and fluttery or more imposing and dramatically speckled, the Oncidium plants native to South America became his fixation. No "mother-in-law" orchids for him, showy ruffled-edge cattleyas held comparatively little appeal. When he began to paint the Oncidium species, he thought he had 200 plants to cover. However, he discovered there were 1200 in the species. More than 750 flowers and 71 plants were included in the book.
Finca Dracula, the Botanical garden in Cerro Punta, Chiriquí, Panama, named an orchid, Oncidium Zelenkoanum "in honor of Harry Zelenko's work and fascination for Oncidium." The Zelenkoanum Oncidium, native to Panama, is a spray of yellow blossoms overlaid with chocolate barring.
British botanist Mark Chase of Kew Royal Botanic Gardens in London edited The Pictorial Encyclopedia, which remarkably is the only book devoted exclusively to the Oncidium alliance with meticulously painted, true-to-life, accurately-sized illustrations of Oncidium plants and flowers. Harry personally collected approximately 4,000 orchid plants, which he kept in state-of-the-art greenhouses imported from Aalsmeer, Holland, the flower capital of the world.
Dedicated to both hot and cool growing species, the greenhouses were initially on the roof of the family's New York City townhouse and subsequently on the grounds of his home in Quito, Ecuador. Harry went on to publish and write the photo-based "Orchids: Species of Peru," a 408-page definitive presentation of Peruvian orchids with more than 1,600 photographs by 42 photographers. Over the decades since his orchid obsession began, he authored content for the magazine of The American Orchid Society and contributed as well to orchid magazines in Sweden, Germany, and South Africa.
He is survived by Rosemarie Zelenko, his wife with whom he resided in Ecuador, and his children, Lori, Linda, and Michael Zelenko, as well as his daughter, Dorothy, from his first marriage.
At heart, Harry Zelenko was a magician, juggling one career, one skill set, and then another. He was an award-winning designer, painter, illustrator, writer, and photographer who became a world-renowned orchid expert. A native New Yorker, he was born in 1928 in Harlem Hospital. In 2000, he retired to Quito, Ecuador to further his passion for orchids. He died in Quito, Ecuador at the age of 96 on September 16, 2024.
In 1953, Harry and Marion opened Zelenko Associates, which became a successful advertising, marketing, and design office in New York City. Together, they crafted iconic corporate images. To mention only a few, these graphic design statements were developed for dynamic consumer brands, including Ferrara Candies, Maxwell House Coffee, International Flavors and Fragrances, Great Adventure Theme Park (in 1974, when the park was first opened and was under the creative direction of Warner LeRoy), and Black Enterprise Magazine (working closely with founder and publisher, Earl G. Graves, Sr. they created the magazine's logo). Marion died in 1983.
From 1995 to 2000, Harry partnered with Emmy Award-winner Lou Dorfsman, former creative director of advertising and design for CBS. Together, they built upon the clean, modern aesthetic Harry and Marion Zelenko were known for as they created corporate images/logos summarized in a booklet called "The Tip of The Iceberg".
Harry's work was not limited to advertising design. He designed games, including "Chop Suey for Ideal Toys", which premiered in 1967. In 1988, he created a series of special occasion stamps for the US Post Office. In 1991, he conceived a LOVE-themed stamp (Love Makes The World Go Round), a heart-shaped world against a black background. He put a modern spin on the American flag for another USPS stamp that same year. He also designed a series of orchid stamps during his time in Quito, Ecuador, where he became an award-winning member of the South American orchid community, embarking on several high-profile botanically-related design projects.
Harry turned to orchids initially to fill the void after Marion's passing. Twelve plants grown for love, not for profit, became 20, became hundreds, then became thousands. Watercolor was his métier, and he spent more than a dozen years painting the Oncidium species of orchids collected by trekking through rainforests and hiking hazardous hilltops, exploring orchid-growing habitats in far-flung corners of the world.
Harry's after-advertising life's labor resulted in a best-selling book, "Orchids: The Pictorial Encyclopedia of Oncidium", the first edition was published in 1997. Lauded by The New York Times and Interview Magazine, among other media, he became an orchid celebrity. Awards and speaking engagements followed, and he became sought after as an expert, an acclaimed speaker, and a respected judge everywhere, from The World Orchid Show in NYC to esteemed conferences around the world, from Ecuador to Sweden to Kuala Lumpur. His passion for orchids earned him significant renown.
In 1998, his story was revealed in the non-fiction bestseller "The Orchid Thief" by New Yorker Magazine writer Susan Orlean. The book, which one reviewer called "swashbuckling", was a dark look at the fierce nature of orchid collectors, a point of view that did not leave Harry entirely at ease. In 2002, "The Orchid Thief" went on to become an adaptation, a film that's since earned a cult following. Nicolas Cage starred in the Spike Jonze film about a writer's fantastical struggle to adapt "The Orchid Thief" into a film.
Harry secured nearly impossible-to-find plants to paint from life. Oncidium was his favorite species, and one he felt was comparatively little chronicled. Yellow and fluttery or more imposing and dramatically speckled, the Oncidium plants native to South America became his fixation. No "mother-in-law" orchids for him, showy ruffled-edge cattleyas held comparatively little appeal. When he began to paint the Oncidium species, he thought he had 200 plants to cover. However, he discovered there were 1200 in the species. More than 750 flowers and 71 plants were included in the book.
Finca Dracula, the Botanical garden in Cerro Punta, Chiriquí, Panama, named an orchid, Oncidium Zelenkoanum "in honor of Harry Zelenko's work and fascination for Oncidium." The Zelenkoanum Oncidium, native to Panama, is a spray of yellow blossoms overlaid with chocolate barring.
British botanist Mark Chase of Kew Royal Botanic Gardens in London edited The Pictorial Encyclopedia, which remarkably is the only book devoted exclusively to the Oncidium alliance with meticulously painted, true-to-life, accurately-sized illustrations of Oncidium plants and flowers. Harry personally collected approximately 4,000 orchid plants, which he kept in state-of-the-art greenhouses imported from Aalsmeer, Holland, the flower capital of the world.
Dedicated to both hot and cool growing species, the greenhouses were initially on the roof of the family's New York City townhouse and subsequently on the grounds of his home in Quito, Ecuador. Harry went on to publish and write the photo-based "Orchids: Species of Peru," a 408-page definitive presentation of Peruvian orchids with more than 1,600 photographs by 42 photographers. Over the decades since his orchid obsession began, he authored content for the magazine of The American Orchid Society and contributed as well to orchid magazines in Sweden, Germany, and South Africa.
He is survived by Rosemarie Zelenko, his wife with whom he resided in Ecuador, and his children, Lori, Linda, and Michael Zelenko, as well as his daughter, Dorothy, from his first marriage.
