Morton Yarmon, who died Wednesday at 89, was a prolific journalist who served as spokesman for the American Jewish Committee for three decades.

A native of New York City whose father was a men’s clothing manufacturer, Yarmon graduated from George Washington High School at 14 and City College at 18. It seemed like he was a man in a hurry, and he remained a workaholic for most of his career, seldom satisfied with working less than the equivalent of two jobs.

Having worked on his high school paper and edited the college humor magazine, he went on to the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. His first job was as a joke writer under David Friedman, who had a humor factory in his three-story penthouse apartment crammed with filing cabinets full of jokes on every conceivable topic. They produced radio scripts for the likes of Fred Allen and Eddie Cantor.

His next job was at the Yorkville Advance, on the Upper East Side, and he then went to work for Leader Enterprises, a trade book publisher with whom he remained associated as an author and executive for many years.

As America mobilized for World War II, Yarmon co-authored the books “How to Get a Defense Job” (1941) and “Opportunities in the Armed Services” (1942), both guides to help the masses then conscripting and volunteering. He then enlisted in Military Intelligence, eventually rising to the rank of captain. Stationed in Paris after its liberation, he was eventually put in charge of producing the official Army history of action around the French port of Cherbourg. Nights, he simultaneously helped re-establish the Paris edition of the Herald Tribune. Strapped for cash, the newspaper could afford to pay him only in brandy, which the teetotaler Yarmon distributed to friends.

He returned to America after the war and took the first of a series of jobs at the New York Times, starting as an assistant to the foreign editor and later as an editor in the women’s department. He was seemingly game for any interesting assignment, including evaluating historic homes, tracing the history of product names, and writing a 1955 article titled “About: Pennies,” which informed readers: “Several billions are believed to have disappeared through the years – into piggy banks and coin collections, swallowed by generations of babies, or simply lost.”

He simultaneously produced a series of useful books, such as “Every Woman’s Guide to Spare-Time Income” (1950), “Jobs After Retirement” (1954), and “The Art of Writing Made Simple” (1956). In 1956, he became associate managing editor of Parade magazine while holding a post as a syndicated columnist for the Women’s News Service, from whence flowed a series of articles with headlines like “Can You Afford To Take a Job?” and “How To Help Him Select a Suit.”

Yarmon had experience in public relations and an abiding interest in Jewish affairs. In 1963, he was named director of public relations for the American Jewish Committee. He later founded Partyline, apparently the first commercial public relations newsletter. He retired in 1991.

Yarmon also wrote the book “Invest Smartly” (1961) and apparently followed his own advice, for he had enough money to endow several sections named for him at the Beth Israel Medical Center and the Jacob Perlow Hospice.