Samuel Irving “Si” Newhouse, Jr., Condé Nast’s Chairman Emeritus who transformed Vogue, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker into media powerhouses with his leadership, passed away on Sunday at age 89.

Newhouse’s quiet, unassuming character piqued the media world’s fascination with the media mogul. He was known to get to work each morning by 4 a.m. and to have read every Condé Nast magazine cover to cover. Over four decades, he oversaw a portfolio of magazines that, as The New York Times put it, “came to stand for a golden era of publishing and became an integral part of the culture they were covering” and “wielded vast influence over American culture, fashion and social taste.”

Newhouse set the bar high for American magazine publishing, inspiring creativity and awe at once. In tandem with Alexander Liberman, an artist and photographer in his own right who served as Condé Nast’s editorial director from 1962 to 1994, Newhouse encouraged his editors to pursue the highest standards of creativity in both photographs and words. In the process, editors such as Anna Wintour, Graydon Carter, Tina Brown, and Diana Vreeland became media stars with global clout.

On Vogue.com, Wintour, Condé Nast artistic director and Editor in Chief of Vogue, called Newhouse “the most extraordinary leader” who “never looked at data or statistics, but went with his instincts and expected his editors to do the same. He urged us to take risks and was effusive in his praise when they paid off.”

Adding that he was a “humble, thoughtful, highly idiosyncratic man,” Wintour recalled how he “preferred family, friends, art, movies, and his beloved pugs over the flashiness of the New York media world.”

The CFDA thanks Si Newhouse for being a champion of creativity and storytelling as well as our industry as a whole.