Timothy R. Sanford, former editor of Vending Times, who spent five decades reporting on the vending, office coffee service, and music and games industries for the trade, has died at the age of 81 at his Pomona, N.Y., apartment.
Sanford was raised in Bayport, N.Y., a hamlet in Suffolk County on Long Island. He graduated from Lafayette College (Easton, Pa.) in 1963 with a bachelor’s degree in history and English. Following a three-year enlistment in the U.S. Army, he joined Vending Times in 1967. He served the magazine throughout his entire career as a trade journalist.
Nick Montano, who worked with Sanford for close to 20 years, said, “During that five-decades-long calling, Sanford became the leading observer, reporter and commentator on the vending industry segments he covered — and he possessed unstoppable passion for the trade and his craft. ‘Operators have a story to tell, we give them a voice,’” he would remind me.”
Alicia Lavay (pictured above), whose late father Vic was the co-founder and publisher of Vending Times magazine, noted that the year Sanford joined the magazine’s team – 1967 – was the same year she was born. Lavay said in a Facebook post, “To say Tim was an industry pioneer is an understatement. But to me, he was more like the big brother I never had, and stood by my side as a loyal companion through so many pivotal moments of my life. He was certainly one of a kind, and will be sorely missed by so many of us. Rest in peace, my friend.”
In 2016, Sanford was inducted into the National Automatic Merchandising Association’s Coffee Services Hall of Fame. NAMA’s antecedent office refreshment associations also recognized Sanford’s contribution to the OCS sector. He was inducted into the National Beverage and Products Association’s Hall of Fame and received the National Coffee Service Association’s Gino Braschi Award for Journalism.
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