Les Pockell, the former associate publisher and vice president at Grand Central Publishing, passed away at 68-years-old.

Before moving to Warner Books–the imprint that would later become Grand Central–Pockell had worked at St. Martin’s Press, Doubleday, and Book-of-the-Month Club. He edited a variety of books, from The 101 Greatest Business Principles of All Time to the mysteries of Donald Westlake to the children’s work of John Lithgow. Slice Magazine has a comic tribute to his encyclopedic knowledge about the world.

Here’s more from the AP: “Grand Central publisher and executive vice president Jamie Raab said she liked to call him ‘The Professor’ because Pockell knew so much about so many subjects and would become visibly animated in discussion, his hands ‘flailing’ everywhere.” (Via Sarah Weinman)