Obituary: Sally Dedecker

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Sally DedeckerSally Dedecker, a longtime figure in the book industry, died from cancer at age 62 on Monday, November 6. She is survived by her brother, George Dedecker.

Dedecker recently worked as BookExpo’s director of education and ran her own consulting company, Sally Dedecker Enterprises. She previously served as vice president of marketing for Ingram Book Group, vice president of sales for Simon & Schuster, and trade sales manager for NAL. A graduate of Hofstra University, Dedecker began her publishing career as an assistant to the head of ACE Books.

In September, Dedecker, who served on the board of the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) for 22 years, was given the Lifetime Service Award at the BISG annual meeting. Dominique Raccah, former BISG chair and publisher and CEO of Sourcebooks, said when presenting the award, “As we continue to reinvent BISG, there’s no better example of what our core values mean in practice than Sally Dedecker. For more than half of the time that BISG has been serving the industry, Sally has been serving BISG.”

Current BISG chair Maureen McMahon also noted during the meeting, “If I had to describe Sally Dedecker in one word, it would be ‘unstoppable.’ Her combination of industry knowledge, energetic problem-solving, and generous friendship put her at the top of the list of colleagues we turn to for advice — or when we just need a dose of Sally’s no-holds-barred candor. You can always count on Sally to tell it like it is.”

The family has asked that donations be made to the Lung Cancer Alliance.