George Brockway, 85; Headed Publishing House W.W. Norton

George P. Brockway, 85, former president and chairman of W.W. Norton, a leading publishing house, died Oct. 5 at his home in Chappaqua, N.Y.

Brockway joined Norton in 1942 as a copy editor and salesman and served as the firm’s president from 1958 to 1976 and then chairman until 1984.

Among the books published under his tenure were Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique,� Norman Cousins’ “Anatomy of an Illness� and Judge John Sirica’s book about the Watergate case, “To Set the Record Straight.�

Brockway was also credited with creating the Norton Anthologies, a collection of some of the world’s great writing. Nearly 20 million copies of the books in the series have been sold.

Born in Portland, Maine, Brockway earned a bachelor’s degree from Williams College and edited the college literary magazine. He worked for McGraw-Hill for several years before serving in the Army as an artillery officer from 1944 to 1946.

In his retirement, Brockway wrote books on economics.