Among them, Schwartz said, were the Italian Market and in the Phillies' locker room, using Tug McGraw and Mike Schmidt.
Born in Philadelphia, Mr. Alten graduated from Overbrook High School in 1952 and earned a bachelor of fine arts degree in 1956, majoring in advertising design, at what is now the University of the Arts.
During college, he worked in food service at Camp Tamiment, which a New York University website describes as being founded in 1921 as a summer resort for socialists and their families near Bushkill, Pa.
It was operated by the People's Educational Camp Society into the 1960s and, the website states, it eventually resembled a mainstream resort.
Mr. Alten met his wife, Barbara, there and they married in the year of his college graduation.
After serving as a photographer and photo lab technician in the Army Signal Corps, his daughter said, Mr. Alten worked for several Philadelphia advertising agencies between 1958 and 1967, often as an art director.
In 1968, his daughter said, Mr. Alten, Ed Cohen, and Frank Naish opened Alten, Cohen & Naish in Philadelphia.
In 1981, he won one of 55 gold medals presented that year by the Art Directors Club of Philadelphia. His daughter said he often won awards at the club.
In 1983, he opened Alten Advertising, also in Philadelphia.
His daughter said that his ads for Stetson hats used John Wayne and those for Robert Bruce sportswear used sports figures such as Arnold Palmer.
In 1987, US Healthcare in Blue Bell hired him to head its ad department.
"He created memorable, award-winning TV commercials, including the Thank Heaven for Little Girls spot," for the Blue Bell firm, his daughter said.
Mr. Alten won an award for best use of minorities in a magazine campaign from the publishing firm McGraw-Hill, she said, and for best TV commercial from the magazine Entertainment Weekly.
Mr. Alten retired soon after Aetna Inc. merged with US Healthcare in 1996.
The website of the Pegasus Riding Academy in Northeast Philadelphia listed him in 2011 as one of nine advisory board members. His daughter said that for more than 19 years, he volunteered with that agency, which handles children and adults with disabilities.
Mr. Alten was a fund-raiser for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, because, his daughter said, a cousin's grandchild suffered from the disease.
Besides his daughter and his wife, Mr. Alten is survived by son Steven, daughters Susan Forma and Pam Senjem, two brothers, seven grandchildren, and a great-granddaughter.
A funeral service was set for 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 17, at Goldsteins' Rosenberg's Raphael-Sacks, 310 Second Street Pike, Southampton, with burial in Shalom Memorial Park, Northeast Philadelphia.
Contact staff writer Walter F. Naedele at 215-854-5607 or wnaedele@phillynews.com.
